Chuck D

Chuck D is an American rapper and songwriter whose four-decade music career — primarily as the lead-vocalist and co-founder of the American hip-hop group Public Enemy across 1985–present — has produced one of the foundational documents of late-1980s and 1990s American politically-engaged hip-hop music. He was born Carlton Douglas Ridenhour on August 1, 1960, in Queens, New York City, into an African-American working-class Long Island family. His father Lorenzo Ridenhour was a Long Island-area musician-and-graphic-designer, and his mother Judy Ridenhour was a school-employed teacher's aide. The 1968 family relocation to Roosevelt, Long Island (when Chuck was eight) launched his early-career path.

His education at Adelphi University in Garden City, Long Island (B.A. in Graphic Design, 1984) launched his early-career path. His 1982 founding of the early-career rap-and-DJ group Spectrum City with fellow Adelphi University students Hank Shocklee and Bill Stephney — across the Adelphi-area campus mobile-disco-DJ-and-rap performances — preceded his subsequent 1985 founding of Public Enemy (alongside Flavor Flav, Professor Griff, Terminator X, and the S1Ws).

His 1985 founding of Public Enemy in Hempstead, Long Island — and his subsequent 1986 first Public Enemy commercial recording session at Def Jam Recordings — launched his late-1980s American politically-engaged hip-hop public profile.

His February 10, 1987 first commercial Public Enemy album Yo! Bum Rush the Show — released by Def Jam Recordings — launched his late-1980s American politically-engaged hip-hop-genre public profile. His June 28, 1988 second commercial Public Enemy album It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back — released by Def Jam Recordings — sold over one million American copies and produced his American politically-engaged hip-hop commercial breakthrough.

His April 10, 1990 third commercial Public Enemy album Fear of a Black Planet — released by Def Jam Recordings — sold over one million American copies and produced his single "Fight the Power" (which Spike Lee had previously commissioned as the title-track theme song for his 1989 American film Do the Right Thing). The 1989 single "Fight the Power" has been continuously cited as one of the foundational documents of late-1980s American politically-engaged hip-hop music. His subsequent ongoing Public Enemy career has continued through multiple commercial Public Enemy albums across the 1990s, 2000s, 2010s, and 2020s.

His name Chuck is the English diminutive of Charles (from the Old Germanic karl meaning "free man"). Chuck has been a popular American boys' name across the mid-20th century.