During an upcoming episode of People’s Party With Talib Kweli filmed previously to the coronavirus outbreak, Chuck D opened up about Flavor Flav’s dismissal from Public Enemy. The rap pioneer explained not only why Flavor Flav was sacked from the group, but also how he got put in the group in the first place, as well as rap fans’ unfortunate tendency to only notice rappers when bad things happen.
“Not to say that me and Flav were on two different pages,” Chuck clarifies in the above video clip from the episode. “Because we were always on two different pages. But we felt that over the past few years, Flavor’s stock is low… and my stock with Prophets Of Rage does what it does.” However, their divergent career paths weren’t the only reason that the two couldn’t stick together. “Long story short, we had the Bernie Sanders thing,” which he said was the last straw in their disagreement.
“Number one, Flav don’t know the difference between Bernie Sanders, Barry Sanders, or Colonel Sanders,” Chuck jokes. “Public Enemy Radio went up, his lawyer sent out a cease-and-desist, I’m like, ‘Good move.’ Then publicly, ‘Man, you don’t f*cking sue me again.’ … Boom, f*ck that, you fired, dude. That’s my last thing with you.” He did clarify that Flav wasn’t “fired” because he’s technically a partner in Public Enemy. “You don’t fire partners,” he says.
He even teases a new project from the pair: Food As A Machine Gun, which is coming soon.
People’s Party is a weekly interview show hosted by Talib Kweli with big-name guests exploring hip-hop, culture, and politics. Subscribe via Apple, Spotify, or YouTube.