While “Black Twitter” was buzzing on August 1st with birthday wishes to Public Enemy’s Chuck D, he was taking time out of his day to brighten a few others. Released on Public Enemy’s YouTube account, “Notice – Know This” is a song that was recorded as his personal rendition of what Jay-Z and Kanye West’s new popular new track “Otis” could have resembled.
While the commentary below the video he clearly states that it is not a diss but a “polite respect call to the troops.” He asks that they take time in their raps to “reflect the people better.” The people he refers to mainly belongs to the same disenfranchised communities who are competing daily for minimum-wage jobs, many teenagers of which 39.2 percent are unemployed, seeking a way to pay their concert tickets up to $300 and more.
Click here to view a Grio slideshow of the top 20 political hip-hop songs
Chuck D — who made hip-hop history with politically-charged songs like “Fight the Power” as activist-inspired role models for the youth — took to this new track to inspire this generation’s leading rappers about the importance of relation to their audience.
WATCH CHUCK D’s ‘NOTICE — KNOW THIS’ HERE:
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He points out the fact that the prison industrial complex is not “swagger,” “whips wheeling is a million miles from what people’s feeling (no gas)” and how the current unemployment rate is a reflection of the 16.2 percent of those suffering “depression inside a recession.”
While some have grown to prefer to hear about the lavish lifestyle of others than to be reminded about the trials and tribulations of their own, is it this same conditioning that has kept commercial hip-hop stagnant for so long? Where is the balance? Read On Here
