Chuck D Tells People to Stop Using Public Enemy’s “Burn Hollywood Burn” Song Amid L.A. Wildfires

Chuck D Tells People to Stop Using Public Enemy’s “Burn Hollywood Burn” Song Amid L.A. Wildfires

Chuck D wants you to stop using his Public Enemy track “Burn Hollywood Burn” in social media videos of the wildfires devastating Los Angeles.

“It has nothing to do with families losing everything they have in a natural disaster. Learn the history. Godspeed to those in loss,” the Rock and Roll Hall of Famer wrote in an Instagram post.

“‘Burn Hollywood Burn’ is a protest song extracted from the Watts rebellion, coined by the magnificent Montague in 1965 against inequality when he said ‘burn baby burn’ across the air,” he also wrote. “We made mind-revolution songs aimed at a one-sided exploitation by an industry.” 

The song is from Public Enemy’s 1990 album Fear of a Black Planet and features Ice Cube and Big Daddy Kane. Chuck D also shared a photo of a Los Angeles neighborhood in flames, saying: “PRAYERS UP. BE SAFE. EVACUATE.”

Several events in Hollywood have been canceled or postponed amid the fires, including nominations for the Academy Awards, Selena Gomez’s pop-up to celebrate the fifth anniversary of her album Rare; and premieres for A Better Man, Unstoppable, The Last Showgirl and Wolf Man. The blazes also forced a host of TV productions to stop filming, mostly due to poor air quality and to avoid clogging roadways for emergency responders rather than their proximity to soundstages.

Mandy Moore, Anna Faris, Milo Ventimiglia, Paris Hilton, Jeff Bridges, Bozoma Saint John, Mel Gibson, Billy Crystal, James Woods and Diane Warren are among the celebrities whose houses were destroyed by the blazes.