Profits of Rage  Chuck D's Same Old Song?  Despite all the
hoopla over Public Enemy making There's a Poison Goin On . . .
.— their first proper album in five years— available exclusively
on the Internet, the marketing novelty of the new MP3 technology
may end up being overshadowed by some Old School demonology, as
rapper Chuck D is once again being viewed in the Jewish
community as a rebel without applause. Last month, the Anti-
Defamation League issued a statement condemning the final song
on the PE album as "offensive," "outrageous," and "suggestive of
age-old anti-Semitic themes and rhetoric," then fired off a
letter to PE's record company saying the song's lyrics contain
"classic anti-Semitic code words and seem to blame Jews for the
plight of financially underprivileged Blacks." The label, Atomic
Pop, the new digital-centric venture launched by former MCA and
CBS exec Al Teller, quickly responded with a letter stating flat
out that the song had "no anti-Semitic references." To
paraphrase Woody Allen, Jew