The hip-hop legend paused, his eyes glancing around the room at the Ohio Union for a full breath as he absorbed the question about the future impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on music artistry. "If you're not on top of technology, it will be on top of you," said an emphatic Chuck D, the rapper who gained fame in the 1990s as the frontman for the iconic rap group Public Enemy. "You have to learn how to dance with what is coming at you."
That was the message returned to time and again by the cultural icon during a freewheeling talk touching on the roots of hip-hop, the sublime beauty of human imperfection, the use of technology in hip-hop including AI as well as his own childhood remembrances of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The conversation with Chuck D - hosted by The Ohio State University's Dean of Engineering Ayanna Howard - was the highlight of the 53rd Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration held Jan 23rd at the Ohio Union before an appreciative audience of several hundred.
During the talk, Chuck D explained the thinking behind Public Enemy's signature song, the 1989 resistance anthem "Fight the Power," tracing it back to the Isley Brothers song of the same name that moved him deeply as a teenager in 1975. "I needed something to signify these lyrics that are explaining the disparities, the inequities, the injustices that are going on with these people crammed into this small area of the city, where one neighborhood a block away is treated like all that, and the other one is being damned and unserviced," he said. "And those three words resonated."
While Howard steered the conversation towards the unfolding impact of AI, the Rock and Roll Hall of Famer was focused on talking about the limits of technology rather than its benefits. "The most important part of being a human being is being able to make a mistake. Like a scar, keep your scars in your life," said Chuck D. "Does AI have a soul that goes deeper than a soul that can make a mistake? Do you always have to hear a singer sing the perfect note?"
Now a 64-year-old entrepreneur and father of three, Chuck D's booming baritone teamed up with sidekick Flava Flav's court jester disposition and the bass-heavy sonic landscape created by DJ Terminator X to create a series of legendary albums in the late 1980s and 1990s on Def Jam Records.
At Ohio State’s MLK celebration, rapper Chuck D muses about AI’s influence on music
Clearly a big Public Enemy fan, Dean Howard declared herself "geeked out" by a chance to sit down with the Grammy Lifetime Achievement winner. "He showed us--our generation--how you can use your voice and talent for activism," said Howard.
As the conversation wrapped up, Chuck D recalled being a child living on Long Island outside New York City when King was assassinated in 1968. "The country was upside down," he said. "We didn't go to school for a week."
Making a passing reference to a recent executive order to rescind diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts in the federal government made earlier in the week, Chuck D urged his audience to, well, fight the power. "Hold your ground, know who you are, and don't be dismayed by the winds of changes and the chaotic stuff going on," he said. "Culture is a thing that brings us together as human beings and knocks all the differences and divisions to the side."
Following the conversation, nine Ohio State students were awarded scholarships honoring the legacy of the late Dr. King as well as Larry Williamson Jr., the longtime director of the Hale Black Cultural Center who retired in 2023. King scholarships recipients were Maguette Niang, Peter Conser, Ortez Littlejohn, Devante Barnes, Abigayle Smith and Jasmine Herrell-Ransom. Williamson Scholarships were awarded to Ariana Stubblefield, Mar’kia Williams and Kierra Willis.