Infamous rapper and political activist Chuck D. will speak at Goldstein Auditorium in Schine Student Center at 7 tonight. His speech, ‘Rap, Race and Reality,’ will cover a broad range of topics from file sharing to President Bush.

‘We were looking for diverse speakers,’ said Dennis Jacobs, chairman of University Union Speakers, ‘and we thought it would be interesting for someone from the music world to speak rather than perform.’

Chuck D. came into fame during the 1980s as the leader and co-founder of the rap group Public Enemy. During the group’s 16-year existence, he has made various appearances as national spokesperson for MTV’s Rock the Vote, the National Urban League and the National Alliance of African-American Athletes. In 1999 he launched a multi-format website, rapstation.com, featuring a TV and radio station with original programming, celebrity interviews, MP3 downloads, social commentary and current events. Public Enemy was also the first multi-platinum act to release an album via the Internet before it was available in stores.

‘He’s been very outspoken since the days of Public Enemy,’ Jacobs said. ‘He’s one of the artists who have been leading the charge of musicians for file sharing.’

Publicity has been limited because of its proximity to the beginning of the new semester, Jacobs said.

‘We just recently started to publicize the event,’ he said. ‘But now that the word is out, we’ve seen a definite student interest.’

Though Syracuse University celebrated Dream Week last week to honor Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Chuck D. was not invited as part of this celebration.

‘We didn’t intentionally bring him as part of Dream Week,’ Jacobs said. ‘We’ve been trying to get him here since the beginning of last semester. He just flowed really well into the theme of the month.’

Jacobs also doubts that Chuck D. will tackle any of the recent hate-related issues at SU; however, there will be a question-and-answer session following the speech.

‘I don’t think he’ll be addressing any specifics of Syracuse,’ he said. ‘It should be a very wide-open speech.’

Published on January 25, 2004 at 12:00 pm