As one of the founding members of iconic hip-hop group Public Enemy, Chuck D is a legend in the world of popular music, beloved for his politically charged lyrics and forceful, resonant delivery. However, many readers may not know that he’s also a visual artist who studied graphic design at Adelphi University, from which he graduated in 1984 and earned an honorary doctorate in 2013—the same year Public Enemy was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
All of his abundant creative abilities are on display in the first two books in his newly created imprint at Akashic, Enemy Books: STEWdio: The Naphic Grovel Artrilogy of Chuck D (June 6) and Summer of Hamn: Hollowpointlessness Aiding Mass Nihilism (Oct. 3).
In our starred review of STEWdio, we noted, “The Public Enemy mastermind combines art and hip-hop rhymes to provide his compelling, personal views on the chaotic years between 2020 and 2022.” Collected in a slipcase, the three volumes—“There’s a Poison Going On,” “45 Daze of Red Octobot,” and “Datamber Mindpaper: Attack of the Screenagers”—feature the author’s trademark rhyming couplets paired with his hyperimpressionistic sketches, which contain echoes of both graffiti art and Jean-Michel Basquiat. The book has the feel of a diary, but it also has enough of a narrative throughline to keep the pages turning.
Chuck D chronicles the effects of the pandemic, the tumultuous 2020 presidential election cycle, and the many deleterious effects of our digital, smartphone–obsessed culture. “Politically and economically,” he writes, “the news is gone nuts.…everyone is scared and angry.” He also includes glimpses of his occasionally rocky relationship with Flavor Flav and other musicians, and he offers intriguing portraits of significant historical and cultural figures, from Sidney Poitier to Questlove and, of course, a handful of members of the chaotic Trump administration. Our reviewer concluded, “In an engaging, distinctly hip-hop style, Chuck D reveals important lessons from the early pandemic years.”
In Summer of Hamn, the author maintains a tighter focus, investigating “how the U.S. has been held hostage by gun violence and a growing sense of hopelessness.” He chronicles many major news events of the past couple years, capturing their urgency as well as the depressingly rapid increase of hatred plaguing the country. Every issue he tackles, he does so with vigor, hard-won knowledge, and even dark humor. On abortion: “The Supreme Court overturns Roe vs. Wade, the government now thinks it can control women’s bodies that Mother Nature made.” On NATO: “NATO does not include any of the Black world[’s] word on its position.…Thus NATO stands for “No African Thoughts or Opinion.’ ” On Elon Musk: “Sending shiny phallic rockets into space.…But folks instead talking how genius Elon is populating the Humusk race.”
Most of the events Chuck D chronicles involve climate change and, especially, gun violence: “40% of the world’s guns owned.…400 million guns in a place 300 million call home.” Through his potent combination of images and unapologetically candid words, the author effectively demonstrates one of the great underdiscussed causes of anxiety in the U.S. today: We aren’t safe anywhere. “4 7 Elevens are hit with robbery shooting murder in Southern California,” he writes, “setting off a manhunt making convenience stores nervous on every corner.” Though Hamn comprises only one volume, it’s no less powerful than the sprawling STEWdio. Our reviewer calls it a “focused, fresh, urgent text filled with pictures worth 1,000 words and rhymes worth thousands more.”
Chuck D has been an important advocate for social justice issues since the mid-1980s. In his first two books, he continues that work via a new medium, extending his voice into the literary world, where it should be welcomed and celebrated.
Eric Liebetrau is the nonfiction and managing editor.
