Taste Flav is taking a break from the hen fingers and clocks to drop some actual discuss hip-hop, activism, and the legacy he helped construct.
Born William Jonathan Drayton Jr., the “Taste of Love” icon’s story goes manner deeper than wild catchphrases and meme-worthy moments.
Whereas selling his new partnership with Elevating Cane’s, Taste Flav bought candid at a press occasion in regards to the evolution of hip-hop and why the style wants to search out its manner again to its roots.
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Taste Flav Appears to be like Again On Hip Hop’s Roots And How Public Enemy Was Constructed To Uplift The Streets
“The state of hip hop proper now, at the moment, it’s what it’s,” Flav stated throughout the occasion, which The Blast was in attendance for. “It is loads completely different than after we, when us, Public Enemy first began popping out and making information.”
He added, “And you understand, all of our information had a message to it… We’d write about issues that was happening within the neighborhood, however in the identical document, we attempt to provide you with an answer.”
The Lengthy Island native was taking part in piano by age 5, and would later grasp a number of devices earlier than briefly attending culinary college. However the whole lot modified when he met Carlton Ridenhour, higher often called Chuck D, at Adelphi College.
The duo began on school radio and ended up founding one of the highly effective rap teams in historical past: Public Enemy.
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Flav On The Energy Behind Public Enemy
Their politically charged lyrics, paired with The Bomb Squad’s aggressive manufacturing and Flav’s untamed hype, reshaped what rap music could possibly be.
Public Enemy’s debut album “Yo! Bum Rush the Present” put them on the map, however it was “It Takes a Nation of Tens of millions to Maintain Us Again” that made them legends.
“The one factor that I can commend my associate, Chuck D, for is that no one was in a position to show him mistaken out of any of the information that we wrote,” Flav stated. “As a result of he is aware of his stuff, he does the analysis and he reads it up and appears.”
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Taste Flav Says Hip Hop Wants A Wake-Up Name
Public Enemy wasn’t nearly music. They had been a motion.
At a time when rap was evolving from occasion anthems to political powerhouses, they turned the megaphone for the unvoiced. Whereas Chuck D introduced the information, Flav introduced the hearth. However how does he really feel in regards to the style now?
“I really feel just like the state of hip hop proper now wants extra information with the messages, as a substitute of simply glorifying the medication and the ladies and the jewellery and all of that,” he continued. “I imply, all of it exists. However to not glorify that. Let’s glorify a variety of the issues which might be happening inside the world. And let’s attempt to provide you with options to those issues.”
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From Public Enemy To Actuality TV Royalty: Flav’s Wild Experience Via Generations Of Fame
Whereas Flav’s soar into actuality TV within the 2000s with “The Surreal Life” and “Taste of Love” took his fame to an entire new (and wild) degree, it by no means erased the groundwork he laid in hip-hop. If something, it made him one of many few stars to transcend a number of generations and leisure genres.
From the socially charged streets of Battle the Energy to the chaotic mansions of VH1 relationship reveals, Taste Flav has performed all of it, and nonetheless finds time to mirror on the larger image.
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Taste Flav Says Giving Again Is The Actual Sauce In Elevating Cane’s Collab
On Wednesday, April 23, Flav launched his new marketing campaign in collaboration with Elevating Cane’s to boost cash for the Girls’s Sports activities Basis.
“I’m a folks individual. Folks made me what I’m at the moment, they usually put me on this place to rock with that, and I’ll by no means change. I really like my folks similar to I really like my Cane’s, and I’m grateful for this chance,” Taste Flav stated of his new marketing campaign. “Cane’s is stuffed with taste. They’ve bought a novel style and whenever you chew into the Hen Fingers, your style buds explode.”
“Giving again is all the time vital. I get a variety of love, however that’s as a result of I gave love first,” Taste added.
On the finish of the day, when Taste Flav walks into the room, you understand what time it’s, and he’s nonetheless utilizing each second to make a distinction.
