Chuck D‘s proximity to the rock world is no secret, and he has now pointed his followers to one of Henry Rollins’ published reflections on the live music space to illustrate why Hip Hop is trailing behind.
On Monday (April 10), the Public Enemy MC shared a quote on X from the punk icon’s 1997 book Black Coffee Blues about the importance of complying with venue staff rather than indulging in “rockstar bullshit.”
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“Listen to the stage manager and get on stage when they tell you to,” the Black Flag veteran wrote. “No one has time for the rockstar bullshit. None of the techs backstage care if you are David Bowie or the milkman. When you act like a jerk, they are completely unimpressed with the infantile display that you might think comes with your dubious status.
“They were there hours before you building the stage, and they will be there hours after you leave tearing it down. They should get your salary and you should get theirs.”
In the caption of his post, Chuck added: “This is why Rock tours get bigger and greater. When they urbanized our music with thinned managements it became too top heavy and the bottom fell out. Lack of administration. The Rock promoters concern is not only counting the crowd but how they leave to one day return. Not urban.”
Chuck D and Henry Rollins have a longstanding admiration for one another.
Back in 2002, the music legends joined forces for the song “Rise Above” as part of an album made up entirely of Black Flag covers.
When Rollins landed his own talk show with the Independent Film Channel in 2006, he hosted Chuck on the program’s inaugural season. During the interview, the two discussed the sociopolitical matters in art as well as their stances regarding specific issues of the time.
The hardcore vocalist has frequently expressed his appreciation for Public Enemy over the years, having named their 1988 classic It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back as one of his favorite political albums of all time.
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“I’m a major, passionate Public Enemy fan,” he said a few years back. “Those records to me, they’re so inspiring. I play them before I go on.
“We played Lollapalooza in 1991, I think, and every time we’d go out I made sure Ice-T would always DJ for us and he’d always put on ‘Welcome to the Terrordome’ before we’d go out.”
