Chuck D. Stands Up for Cube’s ‘Certificate’

Ice Cube’s new “Death Certificate” album may be a bestseller, but it’s under attack in some quarters as racist and hatemongering.

Its detractors ask why the controversial Los Angeles rapper can’t be as “thoughtful” and “positive” as Public Enemy’s Chuck D. Chuck D.’s new “Apocalypse 91 . . .” is among the most heralded albums of the year.

But one of the biggest fans of “Death Certificate” is none other than . . . Chuck D.

“I love it,” the Public Enemy leader said last week when asked by Pop Eye about the Ice Cube album. “I bought the album the first day and I can’t seem to stop playing it. . . .

“A lot of people (who are criticizing the record) are just paranoid and they need to calm down and listen. Instead of complaining about being slandered, they should spend some of that energy coming into the black community and trying to come up with solutions to the problems.”

The onslaught against “Death Certificate”--an angry explosion of inner-city frustration that contains stinging references to gays, Jews, Asians and women--began as soon as the album was released Oct. 31 by Priority Records. The Simon Wiesenthal Center, a largely Jewish human-rights organization in Los Angeles, called on four national record chains to stop selling the record.

In an editorial this week, the trade publication Billboard branded the album as the “rankest sort of racism and hatemongering.” Even pop critics who have championed rap for years have come down hard on the album.

Two tracks from the album have been singled out for criticism: “Black Korea,” which includes a warning to Korean merchants to show more respect to black customers or maybe see their stores burned down, and “No Vaseline,” a vicious attack on Cube’s former group (N.W.A) and manager Jerry Heller, who is described in the song only as a “Jew.”

About “Black Korea,” Chuck D. said: “It shows how blacks feel about having other people coming in the community and having business there without supporting the community and respecting it. It’s something that needed to be said. It doesn’t (really) tell people to go out and burn down anything. It’s just expressing frustration.”

Asked about “No Vaseline,” he added: “I don’t understand the point of Jewish people getting all upset when all he did was talk about (someone) ripping him off--and it so happens that he’s Jewish. He’s not speaking about all Jews, just one guy. If you say this black guy in a song--what’s wrong with that?”

Chuck D.’s own group was involved in controversy in 1989 when Professor Griff, a member who subsequently left the group, was accused of making anti-Semitic remarks in an interview with the Washington Times. Public Enemy’s “Apocalypse” album contains a forceful expression of black nationalism but without the supercharged language that can lead to charges of racism.

Yet, Chuck D. wasn’t at all wary of speaking out strongly in support of Ice Cube. “His album is a warning,” the rapper said. “The black community is a car out of control, heading toward a wall at 85 miles per hour. People don’t like to hear the truth if it’s ugly. They prefer to think everything is rosy and black people are content. Well, blacks aren’t content. That’s what Cube is saying. A lot of what they feel is very accurately expressed in this album. It’s scaring people. That’s good. That’s the way it should be.”