Chuck D's Livin' Loud: ARTitation Reveals Rapper's Visual Art and Autobiography

Chuck D, frontman of Public Enemy, has released a visual autobiography titled Livin' Loud: ARTitation, showcasing approximately 250 pen-and-wash artworks. The book, published by Genesis Publications at £35 in hardcover, blends sketches with annotations and reminiscences, offering a compact autobiography. Before forming Public Enemy in 1985 at age twenty-five, Carlton Ridenhour studied commercial art and later designed the band's iconic gunsight logo. The artwork includes portraits of musicians like Nina Simone, Archie Shepp, Taj Mahal, and Woody Guthrie, as well as hip-hop figures such as DJ Kool Herc and the Beastie Boys. Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine, who performed with Chuck D in Prophets of Rage, notes in the introduction that D drew daily on tour. The book progresses chronologically, touching on golden-age hip-hop and societal commentary, with sketches of Donald Trump and critiques of social media. It reflects D's political consciousness, Black pride, intimacy, tenderness, and nostalgia, differentiating it from hobbyist works by aging musicians. Thirty-six years after Public Enemy's debut album, D, inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and having presented hip-hop history on the BBC, uses the book to communicate across rapping, writing, and drawing.