Chuck D, leader and co-founder of the legendary hip-hop group Public Enemy, urged hundreds of students Monday night to fight the \dumbassification"" of America, a society run by corporations that muffles intelligent thought and encourages material excess.
""Once upon a time the smart kids was rewarded,"" Chuck D said before a two-thirds filled Wisconsin Union Theater in Memorial Union. ""Now the class clown wears a crown and gets rewarded for being out of code.""
African Americans are stereotyped on television, and especially in music videos, as unintelligible thugs, Chuck D said, because that image is best suited to help media corporations make money.
Chuck D came to UW-Madison as part of the school's Distinguished Lecture Series. He was recently added to the slate of speakers after Cornel West cancelled his appearance because of conflicts with his academic schedule. Betty Friedan also cancelled because she is not in condition to travel, said Ann Hanson of the DLS committee.
Several times in his more than two-hour speech, Chuck D attacked contemporary rappers like 50 Cent and Lil' Wayne for glamorizing violence and material goods.
""Just because you're a rapper, it don't mean you speak for people,"" Chuck D said.
He also lamented the hip-hop community's use of the word ""nigger"" as an endearing term.
He began his speech talking about the late 1970s and the birth of hip-hop, saying the only recent cultural parallel was the mid-1950s and the emergence of rock and roll.
""Nobody knew where it was going, what it was, but there was an electricity in the air,"" Chuck D said, recalling the early party scene of hip-hop. ""I can't explain it. It made people lose their goddamn mind.""
Chuck D also decried America's foreign policy as arrogant and attacked President Bush for playing ""grand-theft oil."" He said Americans think themselves better than citizens of other nations, as emphasized by ambivalence over the Gulf War.
""There were casualties, no matter how smart those bombs may have been,"" Chuck D said.
A central point of his speech was the unintelligence of American culture, propagated by empty television programs like Jerry Springer and dating shows.
""Don't let the TV tell you anything. The TV ain't real,"" Chuck D said.
""They call TV programming,"" he said later. ""Why do you think they call it programming for? Because you're the fucking robot.""
He encouraged audience members to think for themselves and speak their minds clearly, attacking the status quo.
Chuck D also said many hip-hop fans only follow the hype surrounding the hottest artists, and over the course of the evening he defended the rapping abilities of Will Smith, MC Hammer and Vanilla Ice.
