A few weeks ago I posted my growing collection of vintage Public Enemy singles and demos. I was watching an interview of PE frontman Chuck D recently and he mentioned that he went to Adelphi University and graduated with a degree in Fine Arts. I went online, found a PDF version of the 1984 Adelphi yearbook, and sure enough, there’s Carlton Douglas Ridenhour. I went on eBay and found someone selling an original copy of the yearbook so I nabbed it.
I’m not huge into yearbooks as a collectible because practically every celebrity has a yearbook, but I had to own this one because it represents an important connection to Chuck D’s body of work:
* While most musicians have graduated high school, not many have a college degree. A common theme of Chuck D’s lyrics is self-empowerment with an emphasis on education as a key to success.
* Chuck D said of his time at Adelphi that it was “the foundation of [his] social, political, and musical world”, an impressive statement given the socially-conscious nature of his music.
* He hosted a hip-hop show on Adelphi’s student radio station, WBAU, through which he met another Adelphi student named William Drayton Jr, better known as the other half of Public Enemy, “Flavor Flav”.
Do any of y’all own a celebrity yearbook?
