Chuck D and B-Real Reflect on Three Decades of Fame, Fans, and Friendship

When considering the great emcees throughout history, there may not be two as close as Public Enemy’s Chuck D and Cypress Hill’s B-Real. But on the mic, the two couldn’t sound more different. Chuck D is known for his deep, echoing bass, while B-Real raps in a high-pitched, nasal tone. But both voices are powerful and both have subsisted through decades of shifting fads in hip-hop. In 2016, Chuck D and B-Real, along with Rage Against the Machine guitarist Tom Morello, put together the supergroup, Prophets of Rage, which spread ideas of revolt and empowerment through song, before splitting up in 2019. More recently, Chuck and B collaborated on the new Public Enemy track, “GRID,” from the group’s 2020 LP, What You Gonna Do when the Grid Goes Down? We caught up with the legendary emcees to talk about what it’s been like to work together, their generation of rappers versus the current one, their celebrity status, and more.