Chuck D has come to the defense of British punk rap band Bob Vylan.
While talking with The Independent for an interview published July 6 to promote Public Enemy‘s latest album, Black Sky Over the Projects: Apartment 2025, he commented on the controversy surrounding the band after its Glastonbury performance, during which the group chanted “Free Palestine” and “Death to the IDF” while also displaying a graphic that read “United Nations have called it a genocide. The BBC calls it a ‘conflict.’”
“When people say ‘death to a country,’ they’re not saying ‘death to a people,’” the legendary rapper explained. “They’re saying ‘death to imperialism,’ ‘death to colonialism.’ Bob Vylan ain’t got no tanks. They’re using words to say something must end. You can’t really kill nobody with a guitar or a microphone, but you could kill somebody with a drone and a f—king tank. We have to be able to fight for peace and love by any means necessary.”
Bobby Vylan stood by the group’s performance and released a lengthy statement on his Instagram June 29 with the caption, “I said what I said.” In the post, he talked about a conversation he had with his daughter about the food offered at her school and how she wanted “healthier meals, more options, and dishes inspired by other parts of the world.”
He added, “Teaching our children to speak up for the change they want and need is the only way that we make this world a better place. As we grow older and our fire possibly starts to dim under the suffocation of adult life and all its responsibilities, it is incredibly important that we inspire future generations to pick up the torch that was passed to us.”
He ended his statement: “Today it is a change in school dinners, tomorrow it is a change in foreign policy.”
The fallout from the duo’s performance continues, as Bob Vylan has been subsequently dropped by its booking agent, the U.K. police are launching an investigation into the set, and the group’s upcoming appearances at Radar Festival and Kave Fest have been pulled — the former of which is seeing acts withdraw in a show of solidarity with the embattled duo.
