'Pop and Politics: Chuck D' Fri 15 Oct, 8,30, BBC Four

[Bollock Chops]

This looks good.

Pop and Politics: Chuck D
Chuck D was the first rapper to bring together politics and hip hop through his legendary group Public Enemy, and he's been fighting the establishment for almost twenty years as a voice for dispossessed black Americans.

Now Chuck D looks in horror at today's hip hop scene, which glorifies guns, money and violence, but he continues to express his own views through his show on liberal radio station Air America.

Pop and Politics looks back over Chuck D's music career and his involvement in the black power movement and American politics, with interviews with Chuck D himself, film director Spike Lee and others.

[Jack Skellington]

Yeah, that does sound good. Thanks for the info, i'll try and ch-ch-check it out.
(apologies, that was an appalling gag)

[mikeyg27]

Fucking hell. Why are all these shows coming on air as soon as I've left home and my precious cable TV? I'm going to put on ...Nation of Millions... and sulk.

Chuck seems to be a pretty cool bloke to me. If you go to http://www.shutemdown.com/petv.htm there is a Behind The Music documentary about Public Enemy  which is highly entertaining. Anyone who spots the bit which immediately makes me think of Spinal Tap in it gets a prize. Also watch Chuck being interviewed by Space Ghost.

Hey, Skelly, is that joke a very obscure reference to Public Enemy supporting the Beastie Boys on their Licensed to ill tour?

[Jack Skellington]

Kind of, that was Public Enemy's first tour wasnt it?! But it was more just a quick, cheap attempt at a gag involving hip hop really!

[Jemble Fred]

I thought it was a reference to the D-D-Dixons adverts.

Thanks to the title of this thread, I'm going to have 'Waiting For The Great Leap Forward' by Billy Bragg going round my head all afternoon.

[boki]

My digibox, which is so old it's an ONdigital box, is broken.  I believe the word is :(

[monkhouse terror]

Cool, thanks for the heads up on this. Chuck gets around on these BBC4 music things doesn't he? I've seen him fairly recently on the Muddy Waters programme and the Gil Scott-Heron one.

[mikeyg27]

I saw him on a programme about the 25th anniversary of Elvis' death, in which he asked why people should care. But then Chuck is the prime archenemy of Lars Ulrich over the Napster saga. I bet that gets featured.

I'm still sulking over the abscence of digital TV from my prescence, but I've listen to ...Nation of Millions..., so now I'm going to have to listen to Fear of a Black Planet. And having seen Terminator 2 again the other day, I've been reminded how much I want a Public Enemy t-shirt. (Why is John Connor weating a PE shirt despite the fact he is clearly in a rockers circle and the only song he seems to listen to is You Could Be Mine by Guns N Roses?)

[The Plaque Goblin]

What time is it... on?

Oh, 8:30pm and 1:15am too.

heh

[A Passing Turk Slipper]

Is Pop and Politics a series of programs? If so what other people are featured?

[monkhouse terror]

It was just a half hour profile of Chuck D, the subtitle being 'pop and politics'. I don't know whether it was part of a series of half-hour programmes on more modern music people, but BBC4 have done profiles of various influential but not necessarily well-known people in the past so I wouldn't be suprised if there are more coming in the near future. Unless they shut down BBC4, in which case I would be forced to take myself up the top of the clock tower just across the street and start picking off people (it's always handy having a tower of some sort directly opposite your house).