While rap today is often stereotyped as being affiliated with gangster and thug lifestyles, several artists and hip-hop groups such as Chuck D and Public Enemy have instead used their music to express and expose political messages.

Chuck D, activist and founder of the rap group Public Enemy, will share his story and views of rap, race, reality and technology at Sacramento State on Thursday.

The event, hosted by UNIQUE, will be held at 7:30 p.m. in the University Union Ballroom.Zenia LaPorte, UNIQUE programs adviser, said she hopes Chuck D’s messages will reach out to students.

“He’s legendary for different reasons, one being he’s the founder for Public Enemy and then he’s also very vocal about different causes and issues,” LaPorte said. “He has an educational message but he’s also a pop culture icon, so that will hopefully bring students in to hear what he has to say.”

Public Enemy’s first album, “Yo! Bum Rush The Show,” was released in 1987. Soon after Chuck D’s rapping career began, he started lecturing.

He has now been lecturing for 19 years.

He has toured college campuses since 1991 and spoke at Sac State once before in 2004.

“When I was in high school, there was no such thing as rapping as a profession … when the first rap record came out in “79 I happened to coincidentally be in college and I was just excited by how the music was an opportunity for people to express themselves,” Chuck D said.

Rap, Chuck D said, has become a creative outlet that allows him, along with other artists, to educate listeners and spread important messages.

“It’s part of who I am and I am proud of the work I’ve done.

It started at a very special time when I think a lot of people didn’t get the info that they needed through all of the portals that exist now,” Chuck D said. “Music served as a great open area for people to get supplementary information.”

While he may be most famous for his work with Public Enemy, his lecturing and activism have certainly drawn attention.

His lectures have been known to include critiques of the media industry’s selectivity and portrayal of hip-hop and rap music as thuggish.

“My problem happens to be with major media. Major media, when it comes to black artists or brown artists, when it comes down to urban and rap music, usually wants to cover the worst story if any story at all,” Chuck D said. “I really don’t blame the artist as much as I blame the lack of infrastructure, and the lack of accountability and responsibility outside the genre when covering the genre.”

Chuck D has also done work with Air America Radio and Democracy Now!, both news programs that offer political analysis.

Kevin Wehr, sociology professor and a fan of Public Enemy, pointed out that rap music today often has to fit a certain mold in order to sell and appeal to most listeners.

“That message, you know, the girls and the cars and the drugs and the “I’m going to go beat up the police’ or whatever, that’s what sells, and there’s a certain amount of posturing that artists have to do if they want to be seen as legit, to be seen as having street cred,” Wehr said.

Although Wehr acknowledges the popularity and abundance of gangster rap, he pointed out that there is and always has been politically motivated rap as well. He has even been known to play Public Enemy in his sociology of pop culture class.

“There’s been a long history of political hip-hop. As a matter of fact you can argue, as I argue in my pop culture class, that the origins of hip-hop were political … Hip-hop started as an underground movement and as it came above ground and as it became popular … the politics have largely been stripped away,” Wehr said.

LaPorte said she has received a lot of positive feedback and expects a good turnout to Thursday’s event.

Although Public Enemy and Chuck D may have been more popular in previous decades, Wehr said the message is still just as pertinent today.

“There’s always these questions of well is it old, is it out-of-date, is it irrelevant,” Wehr said. “But if you listen to “Fight the Power’ if you listen to what they were saying if you listen to anything from that album, “Burn Hollywood Burn’ or “911 Is a Joke,’ I mean all of these songs are just as relevant today even if they aren’t as popular as perhaps they should be.”

Chuck D said he hopes to communicate the importance of education and awareness to students.

He said students should strive to become masters of whatever they are passionate about.

“Be the best that they can be and if they’re going to go to any university or any area of higher learning, I tell them to be an expert in what they love,” he said. “If you don’t stand up for something, you’ll fall for anything.”

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