Chuck D tackles Trump, COVID, and Flavor Flav in his new series of 'Naphic Grovels'

Chuck D is an artist. And we don't just mean a musical artist, although the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee has certainly made his mark in that field by unleashing the greatest album in hip-hop history: Public Enemy's It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back.

The rap legend is an actual artist as well — always has been. He studied graphic design as a college student at Adelphi University in the 1980s before his wildly successful musical career took center stage as Public Enemy became international superstars.

Chuck D has returned to his artistic roots with the recent release of STEWdio: The Naphic Grovel ARTrilogy of Chuck D, out now through Enemy, a new imprint of Akashic books curated by Chuck D. He began the trilogy of journals in 2020, just as COVID-19 was starting to take hold in the country and a new presidential election was on the horizon. The books offer not only a vivid window into Chuck D's art, but also a look back at a nation in crisis, and the daily musings of a revolutionary observer.

They also chronicle the wild relationship between Chuck D and his longtime Public Enemy hype man and foil, Flavor Flav — including a staged fake feud that turned tense for real when one of them wanted to keep the ruse going beyond its expiration date.

We sat down with the hip-hop icon — and artist — to talk about his latest foray into publishing, the process of writing music and drawing art, and if he ever felt he went too far when putting thoughts on his bandmate down on the page and out into the world.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY:  I know you've always been interested in art, but what made you want to focus on putting these journals together decades later?

CHUCK D: I spent half my life in a hotel room, going to 116 countries and touring. As early as 2016 I said, "Wow, I could do something in my hotel room and make the most of this." So I turned it into an art studio, which allowed me to do art in my hotel room instead of a studio, but also, the apparatuses that were set up were making it different. I could come up with a piece of work and put it on social media and let everybody see what I just did. I could really draw to the moment.

And so I became a furnace for art output and activity, turning my room into a gallery. Before you could say, "Yeah, I do art — come by, see my gallery." On social media, all you got to do is post it, and the world is your gallery.

When you're putting together words and art in a journal, is that similar or different to putting together lyrics and music in a song, in terms of fitting everything onto a palette?

I multitask through art because what most people have is their doodles. I work on speed, where I could do a complete work in a matter of minutes. My sketches became more like my doodles. And then adding something to it like a storyline, this is what made me come up with the "Naphic Grovels." Actually, there are going to be five art books this year: my table book with Genesis called Livin' Loud, the Naphic Grovel box set STEWdio, and another one coming out in the fall called The Summer of Hamn.

That Naphic Grovel is talking about how we've lost ourselves in the culture of guns. That's what "the hamn" means. It's the appetite, the fetish of guns in the USA, or even in the world. Every day, I would just be like, "Okay, let me sketch this event that took place and just mirror it with my point of view." So it's definitely interesting, and it's really full-circle, because I started in my first 25 years as a graphic artist. Now, it's just revisiting it fully.

Looking through it, it's almost like revisiting one's own history in terms of how everything changed when COVID first hit, or all the Trump election stuff. It's like looking at all these postcards, but it's someone else's postcard, because it has all your personal stuff in it too.

Yeah, it's a combination. It's a ride, it's an experience, it's a roller coaster through my design. It took me four or five years to get my style back. And as we go further and further into digital and artificial intelligence, the most important aspect of our humanity and creativity is our ability to make mistakes and grow with the mistakes of creation.

Did you have second thoughts about putting any of this out into the world? I mean, you've got all this stuff in there about Flavor Flav and his lawyers. Did you ever think, "Oh, maybe I should hold this back"?

Yeah, a little bit. But it was what it was, and it's clear. It's not disrespectful. We get it. There was another one during the Gods of Rap tour that I did [without Flavor Flav]. It could be a little bit more testy, because, also, I captured what was maybe a rough patch between me and him at the time. That's just what it is. I wouldn't do it in musical form, but as far as me being a documentarian and writing it down in a journal, I know how to just step on the line, and be on the line, and not go over it.

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