May 3–10, 2001

scene and heard

It’s the D

Michael Coard, professor for the Temple class Hip Hop 101, thinks of hip-hop as his religion. If that’s the case, then one of the first prophets stepped into Temple April 18 when Chuck D captivated a packed classroom of 150-plus students, community members and hip-hop heads for three hours as part of the course’s curriculum. His lecture was titled "Rap, Race, Reality and Technology," and while Chuck touched on all those subjects, he did so in a hodgepodge way that at times seemed more like stand-up comedy than a lecture/presentation (guess that time on Def Jam rubbed off). Lady B, Philly hip-hop legend, introduced Chuck and the two reminisced about the early days. Using humor and down-to-earth realness, ("I’m just a Walmart kinda cat"), Chuck talked about the case of Mumia Abu-Jamal and the MOVE organization, hip-hop versus rap, rebels versus thugs and black artists "digging digital ditches and picking electronic cotton" for white record companies. He talked extensively about MP3s, Napster and the Internet as a way of empowering artists to reach their market directly, without corporate interference. Members of the poetry groups the Twin Poets and Phyreneyce were also on hand to intro Mista Chuck.

—Walidah Imarisha