This is a letter from the (in)famous mistachuck of Public Enemy on the MTV music video awards.

eMpTy V
by Chuck D

The aftermath of the MTV Video Awards carries a ‘business as usual’ stench
across the ever influenced cultural, uh, black planet. The new power elite
in America…the selection board of MTV. If I closed my eyes and ears and went
back in time it would’ve been an oily Rockefeller gathering in the 20s, or a
scotch and politic driven Kennedy gathering in the 40s. The new power breed
of selectors who govern images being fed to the world youth, invisibly
anonymous to most, while being the choosers of who, what, when, why, and
how. In the words of my friend Kyle Jason … we (black people on screen) have
been reduced to comedy. All of my career, as an artist, I’ve been fighting
in a genre that has been hijacked by ‘culture bandits.’ Simply, cats who’ve
used rap music and hip hop as a personal whatever without putting anything
back where they got it from in the first place. That’s the ongoing complaint
by the figureheads that started this thing and I don’t blame them. The lack
of image balance is killing us.

Cutting to the chase, in this so called business I've overstood the bullsh#t
as much as possible, navigating the lunacy to the masses and cats within.
But here’s the deal. MTV standards (whoever this roundtable of culture
caretakers are all I got was a cat by the name of Tom Calderone who waffled
so much on the issue I swore he was swimming in syrup) has clarified to my
people, both at KOCH and SLAMjamz Records, that the ‘Gotta Give The Peeps
What They Need’ video would have to delete all affixed logos, in accordance
with a policy to not promote gear. Although I’ve long thought this to be
ridiculous... but whatever... I’ve conceded that this is their little thing
to keep situations from making the money they make and the thing that has me
going to war, and that’s to vanish ALL AUDIO AND VISUAL references to Mumia
Abu Jamal... the Free Mumia lyric. This is serious. In a climate where
they’re playing the hell out of Nelly and Khia, dumbing American kids (17
and under... who else is gonna be fanatical about adult life requesting
videos?) down to; ‘its so hot i'ma take my clothes off down from my neck to
the crack of my ass with a shot of courvosier.’ No offense to the prior two
artists, because I really don’t think they know any better. I’m pulling the
race card here because MTV has admittedly reduced black faces to blackface.

This time the control factor is the intangible grip on a designed
generation, three generations across the MTV span since my 21st birthday in
1981. Well you have designer clothes, designer cars, designer drugs and
designer mentality for a designer generation. MTV has successfully tailored
a generation through the thread of popular culture to pied piper itself, to
detach itself from a past while blurring a future, thus dumbing them to the
American way of weighing people based on quantity as opposed to quality.
Quantity is the measurement needed for the almighty bottom line a la the
corporate dollar. Blackface at its dumbest makes a lotta money for VIACOM.
On VIACOM owned BET peeps know BRUCE BRUCE more than newsman ED GORDON,
reducing us blackfolk to comedy. Where we think America’s laughing along
with us in reality they’re laughing at us. It’s the same reason I left DEF
JAM. We start off rebelling against the one sided control ways of the
establishment, only to find that it eventually becomes a worse establishment
itself. A joke in the shadows of making money…holla!

Really it ain’t about playing the Public Enemy video. So be it. I do art and
songs to provoke and not be a joke. It would’ve been simple as hell for them
to say rather they didn’t like the video. But as a black M-A-N… it’s the
NERVE of them judging what’s acceptable coming out of a blackface. If they
think having a political viewpoint in music is irrelevant its because
they’ve taken the nazi approach in censoring it themselves. Deep down, rap
to these standard people, is disposable romper room sh#t that will never
resonate to the LED ZEP, BEATLES, NIRVANA, AEROSMITH, FLEETWOOD MAC, BON
JOVI status that they still uphold in their hearts and minds. But based on
the ridiculous yet influential decisions they make while in bed with their
big business partners (major labels) it is unacceptable as far as my
community is concerned. Judging that anonymous circle of people in the
‘standard’ department I feel, think and ultimately know that they would
rather reduce us into a screen of swinging monkeys, and retreat to their
tri-state bridge and tunnel confines.

Thus it always seems I exist in a twist of paradox. I refuse to edit out the
MUMIA audio AND visual, that’s crazy and they must be out of their f#cking
mind. And since then eMpTy V has rescended a bit by saying that the names
and the visual images can stay in but the word ‘FREE’ would have to be
removed. It’s getting funnier by the week, that’s something you never say to
a black person (maybe why they would never understand DEAD PREZ's "Lets Get
Free"). This is 2002, so much insanity swirling around Manhattan itself its
ridiculous NOT to make a statement about things like this. The paradox is
that the fight completely vanishes the visability. The edit allows the video
to be seen, but compromises and weakens it, which music is supposed to
hurdle anyway. They didn’t mention the H RAP BROWN part which befuddles me,
for he’s accused of the same thing. Maybe they’re so unfamiliar and dumb
that they don’t know WHO he is and think I’m talking about some brownrappin
cat or something …I play the race card for real in this case. The charge of
VIACOM/ MTV reducing us to comedy through images forces me to flip that card
out. Would MTV News cover this story, especially one in which they’re guilty
within?