Chuck D

Both as a solo artist and as the leader of the ground-breaking hip-hop group Public Enemy (which was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2013), Chuck D helped pave the way for political, social, and culturally conscious hip-hop. Public Enemy's albums remain among the most critically acclaimed works in the genre, including It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back and Fear of a Black Planet. A visionary in digital entertainment, Chuck D helped lead the file-sharing movement, launched one of the first online entertainment websites, Rapstation.com, and digital-only record labels, the SpitSlam Record Label Group and Public Enemy were the second act to ever release an album in MP3 format. He is on the road three weeks of each month touring with Public Enemy and his supergroup Prophets of Rage or speaking at tech and music conferences and colleges. He splits his days off between Long Island, Atlanta, and Southern California.