Mojo - The Music Magazine

...BON IVER
Public Enemy’s Chuck D on The Undisputed Truth’s Smiling Faces Sometimes

The Undisputed Truth
Smiling Faces Sometimes
(Gordy 7-inch, 1971)

Chuck D: “Asking me what's my favourite Motown record is like askin' what's my favourite temperature between 70 and 80. To me they're all flawless.

“The expected choice for me to make would be War, by Edwin Starr, and of course that was a huge record, especially with Edwin's raw vocal style and coming off the back of 25 Miles. The unexpected choice would probably be Baby I Need Your Loving by the Four Tops: I grew up in a Motown-Stax-Volt house, and that's one of those records that takes me back to the barbecues in the yard. People have said that Motown wasn't as “black” as Stax; that black people were into Stax, but I've never seen it like that - in our house, we listened to it all.

“The Temptations were important to us [Public Enemy]; we sampled them on Welcome To The Terrordome - though I'm still not sure if I should really talk about it! Back then we were told not to try to clear the samples, that we'd never be able to afford to pay, so we were never encouraged to contact the musicians we were sampling. But something I've been doing lately is making sure I talk to guys like the Funk Brothers. I had Dennis Coffey as a guest on my radio show, and he told me how he first heard himself sampled was on our song You're Gonna Get Yours [which sampled a post-Motown solo Coffey track]. The major labels kind of built that barrier, but today we're able to knock it back down. Myself and Dennis have been talking about collaborating on something, and hopefully that'll happen soon.

“Back to the Motown tracks themselves… there's so many: Fingertips by Stevie Wonder - hearin' that, comin' from a child, when you're a child too, that was important. There were some great team-ups, from Marvin Gaye with Tammi Terrell and Kim Weston, to The Supremes and The Temptations. You can go right back to the beginnings, or on in to the '80s and to Rick James. But if I had to pick just one Motown song, it would be Smiling Faces Sometimes by The Undisputed Truth. Norman Whitfield was comin' off the back of Ball Of Confusion and it has all that chaos and drama goin' on in there. That record came out when I was about 10, and it taught me that you couldn't always trust a friendly face.”