[.ca] Fight the Power: Rap, Race, and Reality (ISBN 0385318731)

pleasant surprise:
Chuck D takes his talent with words from the mike to the pen, sharing his views on these current topics. Although he writes as he speaks, with a..."colourful" vocabulary, I found that the tone is one of urgency, such that if the language is distracting, the reader hasn't grasped the gravity of the content. Chuck D and Public Enemy continue to produce music for higher purposes than simply to make money and entertain; they clearly wish to educate, stimulate and elevate any who are willing to seriously look at what's going on in our world.

full of inconsistencies, makes very few good points:
I bought this book expecting Chuck D to have some major insights into race relations, not just black and white, with advice to the world on how to make them better. His advice is to only separate blacks further from the rest of the american community, in my opinion, bringing out the segregation blacks so fervently fought against in the early 1900's. Out of nowhere, he'll make a point which makes you admire him for standing out of the normal rap crowd. But he'll say it in one sentence, and go on to something else, making you wonder where his insight went. If the roles were reversed, and this were a white author, this book would have been considered racist propaganda. There are a hundred double standards in this book. Would have expected a more cohesive book. An example, he quotes a lyric from one of his songs as Elvis being a racist, and in the next paragraph backtracking saying the what Elvis stood for is what he's against, not the person. If this were a high school paper, I can't imagine it would get any better grade than a C. I left this book feeling very confused on where Chuck D stands. He makes many statements and his evidence to support it makes you thinking the opposite of his view. I expected much more out of this well respected icon.

Great, insightful stuff.:
Been a huge PE fan for years. Gotta agree with someone earlier that he focuses on black/white problems too much, when his arguments could be used for poor/rich as well. But the points he brings up about the black community and relationto white america are absolutely 100% correct, and I'm just wondering if that is a problem with the other reviewr. Also at points it seems like he is just bouncing ideas off of the wall that he isn't entirely sure if he agrees with the things he's saying. But overall it gets a rise out of you on topics like, atheletes, entertainment, and music, and what America does to represent these things (and vice versa). Good stuff!

Fight the Power Analysis:
Fight The Power, by Chuck D examined everything in the current world today from the education system right down to where he thinks our culture is headed and why. Chuck D breaks everything down in the world and examines it to the fullest. At first glance it may seem like he is a grumpy, washed up rapper but look closer and you will find so much more meaning in the words than you can possibly imagine. Like in the following quote, "Whatever you do, don't go to war for your country." Chuck D is very opinonated and set in his ways. He goes into a full chapter about why you shouldn't be in the army because it changes you forever and how you will never be the same. Therefore, he also shows how the army tricks you by coming to your school and showing all this glitz and glamor to you. People shooting big guns, driving tanks, waving the american flag which essentially is not what the army is like at all. It's very gratifying that a successful rapper has finally released a book like this. It's a great break from the mundane evening news and daily paper. And in the following quote, "There's only a few serious black roles on TV. We have to put pressure on the networks and station groups where pressure hurts." Chuck D make his book universal by showing both sides of the issue and he shows the reader what can be done to help rectify the current problems he addresses in his book Fight The Power. I would recommend this book to anyone who likes any kind of hip-hop or anyone who wants a break from their day to day life and have a great read and whats wrong with our culture and what we can do to help it.

Decent book:
I picked this book up on a bargain rack and it is definitely a good read for conscious hip hop fans and Public Enemy fans