Chuck D Says Feud With Flavor Flav Was a Hoax

The widely reported feud between Public Enemy members Chuck D and Flavor Flav was an elaborate setup for an April Fool's Joke—according to one party. Chuck D said Wednesday that Flav was never fired from the group after a supposed clash over Bernie Sanders, the Guardian reports. He likened to hoax to Orson Welles' 1938 War of the Worlds broadcast. "Hearing the confused mush of political talk while under the bowels of Trumpotus made me use a presidential stage as my platform," Chuck D says. "Out of this storm came a plan between Flav and me to remind people that what’s important should have as much, if not more, value than just what’s popular. Thus came the HOAX, our War of the Worlds."

"We takin' April Fools," he said. "We takin' it over. It's April Flav Chuck Day." In an interview Wednesday, Chuck D said he had been working on music with Flav since February—and it would have been impossible to fire him in any case. "He's a partner. You can't fire partners. You just walk away from 'em," the hip-hop legend said. A new single featuring both Chuck D and Flav was released Wednesday, though Flav added to the confusion by explicitly stating he is not part of "your hoax," Pitchfork reports. "There are more serious things in the world right now than April Fool's jokes and dropping records," he said, tweeting a link to the MusiCares coronavirus relief fund. (More Public Enemy stories.)