Chuck D famously rapped “our freedom of speech is freedom or death” on Public Enemy’s 1989 single “Fight the Power,” one of hip-hop’s most powerful anthems. Thirty-five years later, the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee is still using his voice to mobilize people into enacting change—and this time, he has some assistance from three of his fellow hip-hop legends.
On “Project 2025,” KRS-One and Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five’s Melle Mel and Scorpio join Chuck D for a politically motivated call-to-action. The song poses arguably the most important question of the year: “Hip-hop, where is your voice?”
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With the exception of Lil Baby’s “The Bigger Picture,” written in the wake of the 2020 police killing of George Floyd, YG’s rallying cry “FDT (Fuck Donald Trump),” and Macklemore’s more recent “Hinds Hall” and its sequel, rap’s younger generation seems to have been arguably more silent about important issues impacting the United States. “Project 2025” challenges the status quo at a time when every vote is critical to the outcome of the upcoming presidential election.
“This is a pivotal year that holds the world in balance,” Chuck D tells SPIN. “This song is a plea for peace and for people to pay close active attention, because although voting is primarily a privilege of self-interests, this year marks a return of a corruption hinted by the unbalanced policies of ‘Project 2025.’”
KRS-One adds, “Not only does this song open up a platform for hip-hop to discuss one of the most salient topics in American politics today, but MCs have always been the voice of the streets and obviously the ‘streets’ ain’t with Project 2025. Let it be heard. Let it be known.”
Project 2025 is a political initiative published by The Heritage Foundation in 2022. As explained in a 900-page manifesto, it aims to reshape the U.S. federal government by promoting conservative policies and consolidating executive power, including reducing the size of federal agencies, reclassifying many civil service positions to make them political appointees, and walking back various environmental and social policies. The plan also seeks to inject conservative Christian values into government policy, with specific goals to further limit abortion rights, ban pornography, and deploy the military at the U.S.-Mexico border. It details major overhauls to the FBI and DOJ, as well.
“Rights that have been worked for and fought for for years can be taken away with one swoop by just not being aware,” Chuck says. “That goes for women’s rights and their bodies, things with the environment, things with health care, the climate, all that. If I had to put it into a single sentence soundbite, the details are what civilians need to pay attention to. And that means reading the fine print. People sign up for phones without reading, just to press ‘I accept’ to get ready to play with it. You can’t do that same thing in society, but people do it all the time. As adults, it doesn’t behoove us well.”
Melle Mel, whose group Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five is credited with releasing hip-hop’s first politically conscious song “The Message” in 1982, provides a scathing verse that pleads to “a nation in crisis.”
“No matter who you vote for, the fact that you’re politically motivated and having a say on which direction the country is going is the most important thing that you can do, especially right now,” Melle Mel says. “Three legendary rappers—me, KRS, and Chuck D—on a record together has never been done. Maybe it was something that should have been done a long time ago. The fact that we can use hip-hop for one of its original purposes and present it from an OG perspective means everything to hip-hop and music in general.”
Scorpio, who produced the song using samples of 2Pac’s All Eyez on Me single “2 of Amerikaz Most Wanted” featuring Snoop Dogg, Isley Brothers’ “Here We Go Again,” Ice Cube’s “AmeriKKKa’s Most Wanted,” and a few carefully placed Flavor Flav ad-libs, feels similarly. He reiterates how crucial it is to get back to the root of hip-hop culture.
“As much as I love hip-hop, all of the branches to the trees and different styles, hip-hop got away from what it was originally meant for,” he says with conviction. “We was a voice for the people. Even Chuck D labeled it the ‘Black CNN.’ We let people know what’s going on all around the world and what’s happening in our world, and I think that we got so far away from speaking on things that matter.”
KRS-One, famously known as “the Teacha,” hopes anyone listening to “Project 2025” will feel inspired to stand tall and speak up.
“I want our people to remain aware and courageous toward the future and vigilant against those that seek our demise,” he says. “We are hip-hop, the most powerful urban culture on the face of the planet. If we don’t like something in this world, it will be very hard for that ‘something’ to survive or reach its full maturity. In truth, hip-hop is the ‘true world order.’ We must believe in ourselves and in our future over whoever or whatever foolishly decides to compete with us.”
Although it’s not hard to surmise who will get their vote, Scorpio makes it clear that they aren’t telling people which side to choose.
“This record is not going against one candidate or really supporting another, we’re just putting out there on what some of the issues could be concerning Project 2025,” he says. “We not saying nothing against that other brother—I don’t even want to say his name ’cause it’s not even that. This is what hip-hop was meant for and we need to get back to that.
“It don’t mean because we telling the truth about something that we’re becoming pastors or preachers. I think record companies put that narrative like if you speak truth or power, they did that just to keep it more on an ignorant level. Not saying all rappers are ignorant, but they didn’t want people to have the voice, but we have the voice. We are the voice. Hip-hop is the voice.”
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