Chuck D on why Fight The Power is 'still relevant'
查克·D（Duck Chuck D）解释为何“抗击力量”仍然“重要”
Chuck D is a voice of the people.As the frontman of Public Enemy, arguably one of the most important groups of the past 35 years, he played a huge part in pioneering a new wave of rap music that was both musically and politically revolutionary.His booming, authoritative baritone became a vessel for rhymes about a number of social issues, particularly those affecting the black community, on songs like Rebel Without A Pause, 911 Is A Joke and Fight The Power.pioneer /pʌɪəˈnɪə/noun a person who is among the first to explore or settle a new country or area.verb develop or be the first to use or apply (a new method, area of knowledge, or activity).
booming -- flourishing/burgeoning/thriving/prospering/
authoritative -- reliable/dependable/trustworthy
baritone /ˈbarɪtəʊn/
男中音查克D是人民的声音。作为公共敌人的负责人，可以说是过去35年中最重要的团体之一，他在开创一种在音乐和政治上都具有革命性意义的新说唱音乐浪潮中发挥了重要作用。他蓬勃发展，有权威的男中音成为许多社会问题（尤其是影响黑人社区的问题）押韵的器皿，这些歌曲包括Rebel Without Pause，911 Is A Joke和 Fight The Power。
Chuck, who once famously stated that rap was "the black CNN," has never been afraid to tell it like it is, fearlessly tackling topics such as racial injustice, drug epidemics and political scaremongering.Last month, Public Enemy announced that they had re-signed to Def Jam Records, the cultural institution they helped build alongside the likes of LL Cool J and the Beastie Boys. It was here that the New York legends, whose current line-up consists of Chuck D, Flavor Flav and DJ Lord, rewrote the rules of what hip-hop could achieve.The group, who were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2013, put out seven albums on Def Jam, including the game-changing LPs It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back and Fear Of A Black Planet. They departed the label in October, 1998.
短语积累
racial injustice 种族不公
drug epidemics 毒品流行
political scaremongering 政治恐吓
查克曾说过说唱是“黑色的美国有线电视新闻网”，但他从来没有害怕说过这样的话，无所畏惧地解决诸如种族不公，毒品流行和政治恐吓等话题。上个月，公共敌人宣布他们已经重新签约Def Jam Records，这是他们与LL Cool J和Beastie Boys等人一起建立的文化机构。正是在这里，纽约传奇人物（由Chuck D，Flavour Flav和DJ Lord组成）重新编写了嘻哈音乐的规则。该乐队于2013年入选摇滚名人堂，在Def Jam上发行了7张专辑，其中包括改变游戏规则的LP，《一个民族需要数百万人才能阻止我们并害怕黑色星球》。他们于1998年10月离开商标。
"I just thought it got real corporate around that time," Chuck says."There were things I wanted to do with our audience around the world but the structures that existed at the time could not get there like us. They did not acknowledge the world like we did, so we had to move on."The 60-year-old is referring to Def Jam's online strategy - or rather, its lack of one.
acknowledge -- realise/admit/grant/accept/know
查克说：“我只是认为那段时间它是真正的公司。”“有些事情我想与世界各地的听众一起做，但是当时存在的结构无法像我们那样到达那里。他们没有像我们那样承认世界，所以我们必须继续前进。”这位60岁的年轻人指的是Def Jam的在线策略-或更确切地说，它缺乏策略。
An early advocate of the internet and its potential to give artists control of their music, Chuck battled the label for the right to release songs online."Technology is levelling the playing field," he said in 1998. "No longer can executives, accountants and lawyers dictate the flow [of music]."Things came to a head when Public Enemy began offering free downloads of several unreleased songs in the mp3 format - which was still relatively unknown at the time.Things came to a head
事情到达了巅峰 （积累）查克（Chuck）是互联网的早期倡导者，它具有使艺术家控制音乐的潜力，因此与唱片公司争夺在线发行歌曲的权利。他在1998年说：“技术正在公平竞争。高管，会计师和律师再也不能决定（音乐）的潮流。”当Public Enemy开始免费提供mp3格式的几首未发行歌曲的下载时，事情就达到了顶峰-当时还相对未知。
After Def Jam ordered Chuck to take the files down, he signed the group to the web-savvy independent Atomic Pop and launched rapstation.com, a network of online radio stations in 1999.The same year, Public Enemy released their ninth album There's A Poison Goin' On exclusively through the internet; selling downloads alongside CDs on the Atomic Pop website.
take ... down 删除...
exclusively -- solely/alone/completely/merely/only
在Def Jam命令Chuck删除文件之后，他将这个小组签到了精通网络的独立Atomic Pop，并于1999年启动了rapstation.com，这是一个在线广播电台网络。同年，Public Enemy通过互联网独家发行了他们的第九张专辑There's A Poison Goin'On。在Atomic Pop网站上与CD一起出售下载内容。
While Chuck insists he has "nothing but good memories" of his time on Def Jam, he says the group's return to the label is just "a visit" and was spearheaded by Flavor Flav, whose "needs sometimes can't be done independently"."Flavor thought it was a good time to do something of note with Def Jam and I agreed… it made sense to go back," he explains.
spearhead 矛头
尽管查克坚持认为自己对德姆·贾姆（Def Jam）的生活“无非是美好的回忆”，但他说乐队的回归只是一次“拜访”，由弗拉弗·弗拉夫（Flavor Flav）带头，他的“有时无法独立完成需求” 。他解释说：“弗拉弗（Flavor）认为是时候与Def Jam做一些值得注意的事情，我同意……回去很有意义。
”That might come as a surprise to some - given that Chuck announced he'd parted ways with Flavor Flav in March, following a dispute over whether they should appear at a Bernie Sanders rally.Chuck later said the story was a "hoax" he'd concocted to bring attention to the band, arguing that only negative news stories get traction."The [only] news you read about hip-hop is about another dead rapper," he told the Tim Einenkel podcast. The worldwide coverage of Flav's firing, he added, "actually proves the fact the gadgets are ruling the game".That's a theme he picks up on the title track to Public Enemy's new album - What You Gonna Do When The Grid Goes Down? - which envisages a post-apocalyptic world where digital communication has been eradicated.
dispute over... 关于...的争端
concoct -- fabricate/make up/invent/trump up
envisage -- image/assume/conceive/have consideration for
eradicate -- eliminate/root out/extirpate/stub
post-apocalyptic 世界末日
鉴于查克（Chuck）宣布在三月份是否应该参加伯尼·桑德斯（Bernie Sanders）集会上的争议之后，宣布与Flavor Flav分道扬，这可能会让某些人感到意外。查克后来说，这个故事是他捏造来引起乐队注意的“骗局”，认为只有负面新闻才能引起人们的注意。他告诉蒂姆·爱因克尔（Tim Einenkel）播客说：“您读到的关于嘻哈的[唯一]新闻是关于另一个死掉的说唱歌手。”他补充说，Flav的射击在全球范围内，“实际上证明了小玩意统治了比赛。”这是他在Public Enemy的新专辑的标题轨上遇到的一个主题-网格崩溃时您将做什么？ -设想了一个后世界末日的世界，其中的数字通信已被消除。
"Are you prepared?" Chuck asks, before pointing out that there are some who have never lived a life without online access."Being that it's the norm to them, if it's altered or taken away it will create another myriad of problems," he explains.One such problem could be a manipulation of digital technology ahead of the upcoming US presidential election."Are you prepared for the tricks that the government might play on the way down to election?" the rapper asks rhetorically.“
myriad of 大量的
rhetorically 修辞上
on the way down to... 为...做好准备
准备好了吗？”查克在指出有些人没有网络访问之前从未过过生活。他解释说：“由于这是他们的常态，因此，如果更改或取消它，将会带来许多问题。”这样的问题之一可能是在即将举行的美国总统大选之前操纵数字技术。“你为政府在选举中可能发挥的作用做好准备了吗？”说唱歌手用口才问。
But despite lyrics that declare "we all caught up in the web" and suggest "folks might have to pick up a book, pick up a pen," Chuck says he's not against social media - providing its approached with care."Social media is a good thing when you use it as a tool as opposed to a toy," he told BBC Two's Newsnight last week. "Technology has made the plea for equality, almost like a digital United Nations."
但是尽管歌词宣称“我们都陷入了网络”并暗示“人们可能不得不捡起一本书，捡起一支笔，”查克表示，他并不反对社交媒体-谨慎对待它。他在上周对BBC Two的《新闻之夜》中说：“将社交媒体用作玩具而不是玩具时，社交媒体是一件好事。” “技术已经像数字联合国一样呼吁平等。”
'Fascism is so dangerous right now'Elsewhere on the new album, Public Enemy include a 2020 remix of their protest anthem Fight The Power, which first appeared in Spike Lee's 1989 cinematic masterpiece Do The Right Thing.Featuring Nas, Rapsody, Black Thought, Jahi, YG, and Questlove, the track debuted at this year's virtual BET Awards, arriving at the height of a reinvigorated Black Lives Matter movement, following the deaths of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor."Sadly, it's still relevant," Chuck says of the song's message. "The biggest difference between 1989 and 2020 is that people have been born and people have died, and within that period you continuously try to attack systemic racism and all those other ills - but you can't do it blindly."There's a lot of roadmaps in culture," he continues. "You can educate yourself by reading about society and the arts, especially in music, film, theatre, or whatever. But if you don't study these stories or your history then you'll have no context and you'll make the same mistakes over and over again.""And this is why fascism is so dangerous right now," Chuck adds. "It's coming in new ways but with the same old stench."reinvigorate -- renew/revitalise/rejuvenate/revivifystench -- sense of smellsystemic racism
在新专辑的其他地方，Public Enemy包括了他们的抗议国歌《 The Power》的2020年混音，该歌曲首次出现在Spike Lee 1989年的电影杰作《正确的事情》中。该曲目由Nas，Rapsody，Black Thought，Jahi，YG和Questlove组成，在今年的虚拟BET大奖中首次亮相，在乔治·弗洛伊德（George Floyd）和布雷娜·泰勒（Breonna Taylor）去世之后，达到了重新焕发活力的“黑人生活”运动的高度。“可悲的是，它仍然很重要，”查克谈到这首歌的信息时说道。 “ 1989年与2020年之间最大的区别是人们已经出生，人们已经死亡，在此期间，您不断尝试攻击系统性种族主义和所有其他弊端-但您不能盲目地这样做。他继续说：“文化上有很多路线图。” “您可以通过阅读有关社会和艺术的知识来进行自我教育，尤其是在音乐，电影，戏剧等方面。但是，如果您不学习这些故事或历史，那么您将没有背景，并且会取得相同的成就错误一遍又一遍。”查克补充说：“这就是为什么法西斯主义现在如此危险。” “它以新的方式出现，但有同样的恶臭。
”The star goes on to discuss how the idea of a pro-black consciousness - celebrating black people and black culture, and living a lifestyle that encourages the economic growth and development of the black community - has been misinterpreted as an anti-white movement.According to the rapper, this misguided take is the result of the media's unbalanced representation of black people."The media had propagandised the fear and exacerbated the fear," he says. "The images of us have been lopsided."There might be poor white folks that watch a rap video and see someone throwing money at the camera. They're looking at an image of somebody black instead of knowing somebody black in real life."All of a sudden they'll come to the conclusion that this person is just anti-everything, and they'll say, 'I don't want that, man. [Expletive] these people.' So this person doesn't know any black people but will say, [expletive] these people."He believes the repetition of these images "become a representative of a certain thing without proof," adding that the distorted portrayal of black people has built up "animosity and hate" over the years.And while he had hoped that Barack Obama being in the White House would have "balanced out some of the imagery," he says some Americans' dislike of the 44th President was a product of "old school racism".
propagandise -- advocate/champion/support/promote/publicize/propagate
exacerbate -- aggravate/intensify
lopsided -- unilateral/one-sided
这位明星继续讨论了赞成黑人意识的思想-庆祝黑人和黑人文化，过着鼓励黑人社区经济增长和发展的生活方式-被误解为反对白人运动。根据这位说唱歌手的说法，这种误导是媒体对黑人代表失衡的结果。他说：“媒体宣传了恐惧并加剧了恐惧。”他说：“我们的形象是不平衡的。“可能有贫穷的白人观看说唱视频，看到有人向相机扔钱。他们看着的是黑人的图像，而不是现实生活中认识的黑人。“突然之间，他们会得出结论，这个人只是反一切，他们会说，'我不要那个，伙计。[专职]这些人。”所以这个人不认识任何黑人，但会说，[粗暴地]这些人。”他认为，这些图像的重复“成为没有证据的某件事的代表”，并补充说，多年来扭曲的黑人形象已经建立了“厌恶和仇恨”。他曾希望巴拉克·奥巴马（Barack Obama）在白宫时会“平衡某些形象”，但他说，一些美国人不喜欢第44任总统是“旧派种族主义”的产物。
Those prejudices worked in favour of the current president, Donald Trump, he adds. "They built up into a snowball that he worked into his personal narcissistic favour."So does this mean that the Public Enemy frontman thinks Trump will get re-elected for a second term?"I have no idea," he says."It's not Donald Trump [we should be worried about], it's the people that you never see. There's tonnes of people in places like Nebraska who have their own idea of what they think things are."I'm not generalising the entire population, but I'm just saying that there's America, then there's the United States Of America, a place the world does not see - and it's an area that does not care for the world."
他补充说，这些偏见有利于现任总统唐纳德·特朗普。 “他们积聚成一个雪球，他为他的自恋带来了帮助。”那么这是否意味着公众敌对负责人认为特朗普将连任第二任期？他说：“我不知道。”“不是唐纳德·特朗普（我们应该担心），是您从未见过的人。内布拉斯加州这样的地方有很多人对自己的想法有自己的看法。“我不是在概括整个人口，而是在说美国，然后是美国，这个世界看不到的地方，而且这是一个不关心世界的地区。”
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