Public Enemy's Chuck D speaks about Kanye West: "not in business of making black people look bad"

It's no secret that Kanye West had a difficult year in 2022. With his weird and overtly anti-Semitic remarks, the troubled rapper-turned-producer created a great deal of controversy for himself. However, the pioneer of the rap genre, Chuck D, has now offered Ye a bone.

The Public Enemy frontman said he's not "in the business of making black people look bad" in a feature with USA Today.

During advertising his upcoming docuseries Fight the Power: How Hip-Hop Changed the World, Chuck D said he doesn't want to talk about Kanye beyond his music. The reason? "Celebrity is a drug of the USA", he elucidated.

"They try to tell you it's a drug of the world, but you go other places and they'll tell you that you're an entertainer, you have no political voice", he went on.

He claimed that if he hadn't just stayed with the music, he would now be in the same situation as WNBA star Brittney Griner (in prison).

So he decides to do the same while he is in the States: "I don't look at Kanye as being any different than Salvador Dalí. I'm gonna keep it to your art and go no further."

Given that many of Chuck D's greatest songs, like Fight the Power or State of the Union, have a strong political undertone, his words are unexpected.