Public Enemy # MP3: Napsta rap?

I never was a fan of Dr. Dre (although I did like Metallica before they got so rich and whiny). Dre's gangsta posturing just didn't sit well with this middle-class white boy. Not that I didn't believe in "root causes", or was unsympathetic to issues of urban poverty, persistent racism, and the relegation of African-Americans (on the whole, and especially young males) to the underclass. I just couldn't stomach the Bitches, Hos, 8-Ball, and 9-mm ultraviolence. But I always loved Chuck D.

Chuck -- the founder of Public Enemy and Rapstation.com -- appeared on a CNN "e-lectronic town hall" about Napster, MP3s and the music biz, on Wednesday, in opposition to Dre's and Metallica's attorney. Chuck seems unthreatened by Napster, and apparently views it as a force for good. Not surprising, considering the historic exploitation of artists by the music industry, the rank corruption and payola, the outright thefts of black musical tradition by light-skinned industry front men.

Despite my reservations about Dre, his success as a performer, producer, and label owner is a repudiation, in part, of music industry business as usual. And his eagerness to latch on to the federal legal system to secure his short-term profits against Napster is not wholly inconsistent with his rebel pose -- a real gangsta would amorally use whatever weapon lay to hand. Dre never pretended to play softball.

Chuck D and PE always seemed to take another approach to American racism and poverty. "Fight[ing] The Power" was not about indiscriminate violence, misogyny or nihilism, but a penetrating and insightful indictment, and call to revolution -- not riot. Now that he's positioned within the economic power structure, Chuck seems to advocate a "third way" -- neither the solipsistic greed of the gangstas, nor the smug upward mobility that distinguishes the modern civil rights movement and black identity politics from their early '60s predecessors.

In short, Chuck advocates an expanded creative sector with fewer middlemen, reduced costs, and more equitable distribution -- not a scramble for a bigger piece of the pie, but seeing to it ourselves that we bake a whole lot more pies.

[See and read transcripts of Chuck D squaring off w/ Lars Ulrich of Metallica on Charlie Rose here . An interesting CNN.com article on Napster, Gnutella, and decentralized MP3 distribution, generally is here .]