Quotes from Chuck D

I'd rather have a hundred thousand or a million people saying I'm nuts and I'm crazy for my musical choices and what I've said lyrically, than a million people all raising their hand on the first day.

Let the voice be the voice of the voiceless and let it come from the world of rap music to keep the stereotype and the peace at the same time.

Rap is supposed to be about keeping it real and not relinquishing your roots in the community. Without that, it's just posturing. Somebody who claims to speak for the 'hood don't need no private jet.

Right is right, and wrong is wrong, and when people start getting it confused, that means they need to sit down with some real people.

I think right about now we have to beware of marketed Malcolms and Martins. Real people do real things.

The Illuminati is just the evil, 'nameless' people who are behind governments.

I think governments are the cancer of civilization.

Try to do your best to look people in the eye and talk to them without a gadget being in between you all the time.

I'm recording freely, and if I make a song, I release it immediately, so I'm more likely to believe in one song at a time as opposed to albums.

Slavery was incredibly prosperous for some people, at that time. It was not a bad business plan, but it was terrible and inhumane. But as a business it worked.

A lot of the post-1977 dancefloor disco sounds had their place at one time, but you can't bring them back unless you bring back a floor.

People are so confused about race and hip-hop that people didn't even consider the Beastie Boys one of the greatest rap groups of all time because they were white.

Hip-hop is a part of rock & roll because it comes from DJ culture. DJ culture is the embodiment of all genres and all recorded music, if you actually pay attention to it.

A lot of times black folks look for love in all the wrong places. You're always looking for somebody to love you, be accepted, and there's the insecurities that are even transmitted through rap. Everyone is trying to aim to please too much.

I wanna go to the clubs and actually have a good time too, but at the same time, when the party's over, I have to go back to the real world and try to figure out who I am.

Every time something tries to create respect with a machine it crumbles!

Public Enemy is the security of the hip-hop party.

My daughter's 19. I'm not asking her to develop as an artist. I'm just asking her to develop as a full person, human being.

My mother went to university, my father didn't. But they are very educated, very wise people. My father went to the military, so he's worldly.

I think too much of the music industry is for the lawyer and accountant mentality.

I totally hate when somebody takes a classic and desecrates it. I like Jimmy Page and P. Diddy, but what they did to 'Kashmir' was a debacle.

To live a life you love, you must Love the life you live.

All I want is peace and love on this planet. Ain't that how God planned it?

I like to drive and I like to travel. When I drive on the open road, it's like sometimes the car turns into a pen and the road is a piece of paper.