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.H I P H O P M AT T E R Srap, race, and reality.Certain that hip hop was surrendering much of its value to corporate America, he had added technology to his crit-ical repertoire in the late 1990s.The Internet, he believed, was hip hop’s greatest hope for counterbalancing the economic and ideologi-cal hegemony of the major record groups.Though his elder states-man’s status symbolized the culture’s past, his grasp of technology—and the impact it was likely to have on the movement—suggestedhe also understood hip hop’s future.His spirited testimony beforeCongress, lively debates with Lars, and emergence as a nationally rec-ognized enthusiast of online music demonstrated that after nearlytwo decades of raising hell the self-proclaimed “rebel without apause” was still “louder than a bomb.” Chuck D had spent his entirecareer as a performer hyping revolution.But the adoption of the In-ternet to challenge the corporate takeover of hip hop was, withoutquestion, his most radical attempt to “fight the power.”.In the late 1980s and early 1990s no group or artist influenced hip hop more than Public Enemy.The group’s flair for pop theater and racial drama broadened the aesthetic and thematic possibilities of rapmusic.As chief architect of the sound and fury that defined a turning point in hip hop, Chuck D enlarged the language of pop by creating a space for music that was stimulating, boldly original, and unflinch-ingly political.Despite the group’s image as a forceful voice for Ghetto USA,the idea for Public Enemy formed at Adelphi University, a Long Is-land liberal arts school.After deciding to major in graphic design, Chuck D, born Carleton Ridenhour, entered Adelphi in the fall of1979.That was the same year that rap music’s first commercial hit,“Rapper’s Delight,” broke.Soon after enrolling in college, Chuck Dfound himself gravitating toward a musical culture that was moldingits identity and cultivating a distinct voice.Unfocused as a student he demonstrated great precision while working with his friend and fu-114
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