As a high schooler Chuck D's voice always struck me as what a mans voice should sound like. Set aside for a minute what he stood for and represented-just his voice. Deep. Rich. Bellowing. Commanding.
Then you have they
way he delivered his lyrical content. He made hearing him absolutely unavoidable. You could not casually listen to Public Enemy. The Bomb Squads bassliness force you to bob your head and their samples came at you from all angles. And just when you thought things couldn't get more confusing, in comes the Rhyme Animal to grab you by your neck and spit in your ear.
From there he uses run-up-on-you delivery to drag you from track to track by said jugular. His delivery is like an angry, poetic sports broadcaster. At first his flow may strike you as one dimensional, however that is not completely true. Its true that in him, you can hear elements of MC's that came before him- playing around with intonation, lowering and raising his voice as needed. It also true that many of his contemporaries had left that Melle Mel-ish style behind. I should also note that when P.E. made their debut, Chuck was already older than most his peers entering the game.
I'd be remiss if I neglected to mention the contributions of Flavor Flav. Some may remember him as simply a hype man but if Flav had 7 words to deliver during a song he would spit those individual words with the passsion and intention. No two cents have ever been more impactful.
I decided to go with the the 3rd verse of the 4 verse
Rebel Without a Pause from It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold us Back. It captures the essence of all the parties that contribute that epic delivery of Chucks. X's scratching. Bombs Squads terrifying track. Flav's two cents. Perfect.
One of a kind.
