It sounded as if it were 1989 all over again when Chuck D appeared earlier this week on National Public Radio's Fresh Air program. Even as D and his groundbreaking hip-hop group Public Enemy are preparing to release their first album in three years, as well as a series of classic reissues, it was the band's controversial past that assumed center stage.

D was on the show Wednesday ostensibly to talk about his new book, Fight the Power: Rap, Race and Reality. He spent much of his time, however, defending his recently reinstated bandmate Professor Griff against charges of anti-Semitism for caustic accusations Griff made seven years ago in the Washington Times.

After first discussing Public Enemy's origins and mission, host Terry Gross recounted several statements Griff made in the Times, including "The Jews are responsible for the vast majority of wickedness that goes on across the globe."

She went on to note D's own quotations of Griff in Fight the Power, which first link Jews to the jewelry business and then highlight the role of jewels in the slave trade. "I know you see Public Enemy as being about educating its listeners," said Gross. "What message do you think that gave?"

"I think it was informative in a certain way, but a lot of it was presented wrong," said D, who then remarked briefly about naming individual offenders rather than issuing blanket condemnations.

One may have thought that would have ended the discussion, but then D -- once known for his agility in disarming accusative interviewers -- launched into a convoluted discussion about ownership of modern diamond mines, whether or not people could be born into Judaism, and how plans for white world supremacy led to race separation.

Gross, however, was not content with what she seemed to think was an attempt to evade the issue. "Can you understand why people were uncomfortable with your criticism of Griff?" she asked. "The elaborate explanation you just gave is still confusing."

"I told people, 'Griff was wrong, but let's talk now,'" D countered. "For example, let's talk about people that have benefited off the slave trade that still have money today," he said, going on to call for reparations for both African-Americans and Africans.

The interviewer was nonetheless determined to either hold D to the ropes or give him another chance to explain. "You don't sound very uncomfortable with the concept [of Jews being responsible for wickedness]," she said, calling his refutation "tepid."

"I don't care what you think it sounds like," said D. "I don't care what you feel about what I'm talking about."

He then reiterated his point about citing the names of wrong-doers rather than their religious affiliations -- which is the very argument that one would expect D, who's been through countless media firestorms in the past, to have stuck to unwaveringly.

Meanwhile, the Griff debate was not the only segment to play like a walk down P.E. memory lane. Earlier in the program, D offered an elaborate explanation for the symbolic meaning of the Uzis carried onstage by members of Public Enemy's "security" team. "Were they real Uzis or fake Uzis?" asked Gross.

"Ha ha -- next question," shot D cagily.

"I'm sorry, you can't answer that?" probed Gross, laughing. "Why can't you answer that?"

"'Cause I choose not to," said D.

Gross then let the topic drop, perhaps anticipating the bigger brick walls ahead. [Fri., Oct. 17, 1997, 9 a.m. PDT]