bring the noise!

Chuck D pulls up to some tasty Country Fried Soul. . .




. . . As does Paris!

I interviewed them both tonight for part of a book about lyrics for my dear publisher Backbeat in London. Other songwriting luminaries in the book (which is by Rikki Rooksby but will feature contributions by several authors) include David Crosby, Lieber and Stoller, Nick Cave, and Robert Smith of The Cure. Chuck and Paris will be the lone reps for hip-hop, and what fitting candidates indeed! Given that Paris wrote 95% of the lyrics and produced the music for the new Public Enemy album Rebirth of a Nation, it was exciting to hear about how he had to put himself in Chuck's mindstate to write.

As much as I despise transcribing, it will be fun to get this interview down. As expected, they both had some amazing points to make. Chuck in particular was extremely conversant about notable songwriters from all genres, from Bacharach to Three Six Mafia.

I told Chuck it was a trip for me because the first rap concert I ever went to was Public Enemy in 1990 at the Shoreline Amphitheatre, and here I was sitting with him and asking him all kinds of questions about his process. Gotta admit that the creative aspect of my job has been particularly invigorating lately!

My friends wanted me to ask questions about Flav, and I didn't because it didn't fall naturally into the conversation we needed to have. But I really just wanted to say one thing. . . "What do you think of when I say 'Hoopz?'"