By Hamish Clark
Hamish Clark dressed down for this special meeting, where a white Christchurch boy was shaking the hand of the guru of hip hop – Chuck D, the elder statesman and leader of the most powerful rap group on the planet - Public Enemy.
The group lead the hip hop world in the early 90s and admit in two decades America’s dominance of rap has faded.
“The state of hip hop is more like an international picture, it is not based as a centre in the United States as a pure artform,” says Chuck D.
New Zealand has its own hip hop industry led by Dawn Raid and musicans Che Fu, Supergroove and Scribe.
“You have had great artists for 20 years or so, the history of hip hop artists indigenous to New Zealand culture has to be acknowledged,” Chuck says.
What he wants is more rap groups and less of the hip hop individuals, artists like Jay Z and Kanye West, even Snoop Dogg, who worked with Katy Perry on one of her hits.
“Who's Katy Perry? What does she do? I am clueless on that. I have always supported hip hop for the longest period of time,” he says.
Carrying a cold he picked up in Australia, Chuck D, Flavor Flav and the rest of Public Enemy play Christchurch tonight, and Auckland Saturday night.
“We have completed seven legs of eight legs in the Fear of a Black Planet tour for a year and a half, we are wrapping it up in Auckland and saving the best for last,” Chuck D says.
After 71 tours and 76 countries Public Enemy have still got attitude after 23 years.
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