Chuck d biography

Carlton Douglas Ridenhour (born August 1, 1960), known professionally as Chuck D, is an American rapper, best known as the leader and frontman of the hip hop group Public Enemy, which he co-founded in 1985 with Flavor Flav. Chuck D is also a member of the rock supergroup Prophets of Rage. He has released several solo albums, most notably Autobiography of Mistachuck (1996).

His work with Public Enemy helped create politically and socially conscious hip hop music in the mid-1980s. The Source ranked him at No. 12 on its list of the Top 50 Hip-Hop Lyricists of All Time. Chuck D has been nominated for six Grammys throughout his career, and has received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award as a member of Public Enemy. He was also inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2013 as a member of Public Enemy.

Early life

Ridenhour was born on August 1, 1960, on Long Island, New York. When he was a child, his mother played Motown and showtunes in the home and his father belonged to the Columbia Record Club. He began writing lyrics after the New York City blackout of 1977. He attended W. Tresper Clarke High School, where he was offered no formal education in music. He then went to Adelphi University on Long Island to study graphic design, where he met William Drayton (Flavor Flav). He received a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Adelphi in 1984 and later received an honorary doctorate from Adelphi in 2013.

While at Adelphi, Ridenhour co-hosted hip hop radio show the Super Spectrum Mix Hour as Chuck D on Saturday nights at Long Island rock radio stat

American rapper (born 1960)

Musical artist

Carlton Douglas Ridenhour (born August 1, 1960), known professionally as Chuck D, is an American rapper, best known as the leader and frontman of the hip hop group Public Enemy, which he co-founded in 1985 with Flavor Flav. Chuck D is also a member of the rock supergroupProphets of Rage. He has released several solo albums, most notably Autobiography of Mistachuck (1996).

His work with Public Enemy helped create politically and socially conscious hip hop music in the mid-1980s. The Source ranked him at No. 12 on its list of the Top 50 Hip-Hop Lyricists of All Time. Chuck D has been nominated for six Grammys throughout his career, and has received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award as a member of Public Enemy. He was also inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2013 as a member of Public Enemy.

Early life

Ridenhour was born on August 1, 1960, on Long Island, New York. When he was a child, his mother played Motown and showtunes in the home and his father belonged to the Columbia Record Club. He began writing lyrics after the New York City blackout of 1977. He attended W. Tresper Clarke High School, where he was offered no formal education in music. He then went to Adelphi University on Long Island to study graphic design, where he met William Drayton (Flavor Flav). He received a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Adelphi in 1984 and later received an honorary doctorate from Adelphi in 2013.

While at Adelphi, Ridenhour co-hosted hip hop radio show the Super Spectrum Mix Hour as Chuck D on Saturday nights at Long Island rock radio station WLIR, designed flyers for local hip-hop events, and drew a cartoon called Tales of the Skind for Adelphi student newspaper The Delphian.

Career

Ridenhour (using the nickname Chu

Rapper, activist

At a Glance…

Unified His Influences

Revolutionized Rap

Courted Success and Controversy

Spoke to Youth

Selected discography

Sources

As the serious side of rap group Public Enemy—once described as “the most radical and politically charged band in America” by the Washington Post—Chuck D helped politicize a musical genre that had largely served to champion escapism. After captivating audiences with their early releases, P.E., as it came to be known, joined a small cadre of hip-hop artists who broadened the reach of their medium by placing emphasis on learning one’s history and confronting and overturning racism and other forms of oppression.

With uncompromising jams like “Fight the Power” and “By the Time I Get to Arizona,” Chuck D backed up his widely cited claim that rap had become the “Black CNN” [Cable News Network], while simultaneously cultivating a white listenership with excursions into rock. Meanwhile, his role expanded to that of a community spokesperson not afraid to expose his personal politics. As Def Jam Records president Russell Simmons once remarked in the ChicagoTribune, “Chuck’s mouth is his gun, and words are his bullets.” But as the subgenre gangsta rap gained popularity in the mid-1990s, Chuck and his confederates were forced to defend their own relevance.

Chuck D came by his strong views early in his youth. Born Carlton Ridenhour in Long Island, New York, Chuck D was raised by activist parents who introduced him to the history of the civil rights struggle. “My mom was active in lots of community-oriented things, and she put me into these special summer school [programs] when I was around 11 or 12, and they taught us a lot about black history,” Chuck told the Los Angeles Times’ Robert Hilburn. Run by former members of the Black Panther Party, a militant, revolutionary blac

Biography of Chuck D

Carlton Douglas Ridenhour was born August 1, 1960. He is best known professionally as Chuck D the leader and frontman of the hip hop group Public Enemy, which he co-founded in 1985 with Flavor Flav.

Chuck D is a social activist, multimedia producer, visual artist, and digital music pioneer. He has been featured in more than one hundred documentaries on music, technology, politics, and race, and cocurated the Smithsonian Anthology of Hip-Hop and Rap. He has also been a national spokesperson for Rock the Vote, the National Urban League, Americans for the Arts, and the National Alliance of African American Athletes. As part of Public Enemy, he was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and earned a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.

Learn more at Chuck D’s official website.

4 Books by Chuck D