Public EnemyMUSICIAN, artist, producer, technology advocate and author – it has been 27 years since Public Enemy exploded onto the hip hop scene with a fresh take on rap music but despite the years, MC Chuck D is busier than ever.

The rap pioneer ignored the conventions of hip hop at the time, infusing it with a social conscious and it is clear from the off that the passion he brought to iconic 80s classics like “Don’t Believe The Hype” and “Bring The Noise” will still be there to be seen when Public Enemy take to the stage at next weekend’s Indiependence Music Festival.

But what is it about Public Enemy’s music that has resonated not just with audiences nearly three decades later, but with global audiences far-removed from the group’s New York roots?

In ‘87 we came to a raw genre and we presented an authenticity in our performance, we were very sure of our point of view and angle. A lot of people can relate to that energy, and really hadn’t heard anything like it before,” Chuck reflects.

The group is still releasing music, and released two new albums in 2012. The title of one of these new works – Most of My Heroes Still Don’t Appear on No Stamp– is a self-referential nod to lyrics he first wrote over 25 years ago and suggests a man who is still unhappy with the society he sees around him. He reveals that the commercialisation of hip-hop has proven to be a disappointment to him.

In regular life, 25 years isn’t a long time, but it is a long time in the music business. There has been a lot of change. Why aren’t we hearing musicians making statements anymore? We don’t hear enough artists speak out.

Every artist has to say something that matters. But music is a business, with accountants and managers who turn music into a mass product and not its own living organism.

He is also disappointed with a media he believes is failing artists, and has fallen short of its duty to offer musicians a platform to reach audiences. Mainstream media, radio stations and televisions shows are presenting the arts to audiences through too narrow a filter, he argues.

1,000 artists need 100 curators and it feels like we have 20,000 artists and only ten curators. Hip hop is still searching for an honest infrastructure,” he argues.

In terms of the infrastructure of music distribution, Chuck D was an early prominent advocate of file-sharing software such as Napster. Isn’t it easy, however, for someone who has already made his money from music, to support file distribution, and how does he expect emerging artists to make a living from their work?

Well if art is reduced to product it’s rather difficult. Artists need to look at the panoramic aspect of themselves to permeate the masses,” he argues.

They need to emphasise the artist as an act rather than an audio file, it has to capture its corner,” he says, adding that it is now an artist’s duty to embrace technology to give their audience a more holistic experience and representation of their work.

Make a video for every song, shoot it with a camera phone, learn how to promote your video, promote your record,” he says.

One avenue open to hip-hop artists is rapstation.com, a site Chuck D launched in 1999 as a home for the hip hop community. He says he’s “working behind the scenes, trying to provide a service to the genre worldwide”, but while this, producing and writing keeps Chuck D busy, he says there’s no sign of Public Enemy calling it a day any time soon.

Anybody who ever really makes music never gives it up. I don’t drink, I don’t smoke. Music is my thing, hip-hop is my religion and rap is my military.

Public Enemy play the Indiependence Music Festival in Mitchelstown, Co. Cork on Sunday, August 4. Weekend tickets are available on tickets.ie

Public Enemy