I always knew Chuck D had a strong visual sense. All you need to look at his legendary band’s black-kid-in-a-gun-sight logo, his use of Pirates and Phillies baseball caps as head gear, the type face used in all Public Enemy graphics and the stage attire of Flava Flav and the S1Ws. The man clearly had an eye.
But only in the last few years did I find out how passionate Chuck was about caricature and cartooning as an artistic expression. He did a sold out art exhibit in Los Angeles a few years back and has sent me a few amazing drawings for projects I’m working on. Now everyone can see how PE’s leader now blends his visual art and activism in a collection of graphic diaries, STEWdio: The Naphic Grovel ARTrilogy of Chuck D. The three books are individually, There’s a Poison Goin’ On, 45 Daze of Read Octobot, and Dat Amber Mindpaper. The series starts in 2020 with the Covid-19 pandemic, the battle against Donald Trump’s policies, and the preperations for two new PE albums.
The first volume sticks close to the diary format as the dire dates of 2020’s closing of the world, police shootings of black citizens and Chuck’s issues with Flava documented on a day to day basis. The next two books aren’t as strictly chronological, but do capture the day to day challenges of the last few years along with Chuck’s musings on hip-hop, social media and mass media. Chuck has a very distinctive impressionistic style of drawing that shares Ralph Steadman’s acerbic vision of America along with brief, block lettered text that occasionally break into rhyme. Chuck can be more detailed in depicting certain public figures (the Beastie Boys, Barack Obama), but can be vicious and satirical when its called for.
This collection is the first publication of Enemy Books via Brooklyn’s favorite company, Akashic Books, who also published my D Hunter music noir series. You can get more info on the books at www.akashicbooks.com or RAPCENTRALSTATION.NET/ENEMY-BOOKS.
Worth reading since June is #blackmusicmonth and this year is #hiphop50.