Nile Rodgers explains how disco had a bigger political impact than the Black Panthers
The iconic American record producer and multi-instrumentalist Nile Rogers has led such a prolific and impactful that even those who admire him most only see the tip of the iceberg. After co-founding the successful disco band Chic, Rodgers branched out into compositional and production work.
Having written and produced some of Sister Sledge and Dianna Ross’ biggest hits, Rodgers went on to produce landmark albums for famed artists, including David Bowie’s Let’s Dance, Original Sin by INXS, Duran Duran’s The Reflex and Notorious, and Madonna’s Like a Virgin. Later collaborations include those with The B-52s, Jeff Beck, Mick Jagger, Grace Jones, The Vaughan Brothers, Bryan Ferry, Christina Aguilera, Lady Gaga, and Daft Punk. To say this man is a legend would be putting it mildly.
Before Rodgers became a crucial innovator in New York City’s late 1970s disco scene, he had been a member of the extremist black power political party, the Black Panthers. Although the movement was founded to counter the deplorable inequality rife in the USA through the mid-20th century, it was notorious for militant activism and criminal activity.
In a 2018 conversation with Huck Magazine, Rodgers was asked what attracted him to the Black Panther Party in his youth. “Progress,” Rogers replied. “It’s the same way you end up in a really good band. I started out as a peacenik hippy, and from that, I got more and more politicised, more and more radical. Finally, one day the national guard beats you up, and you say, ‘Wait a minute, I didn’t do anything.’ It was just part of the process.”
“Let’s take it away from politics,” he continued. “It’s just the way my family socialised me. They socialised me to care about other people. I started out as a cub scout, helping old ladies cross the street. I went from one type of political organisation to another and finally ended up with the Black Panthers. It was like with religion, it’s a rite of passage! It’s what you did.”
Maintaining a political line, the interviewer interjected, explaining that not everyone joined the Black Panther movement. “I’m 65 years old! It was a sign of the times,” Rodgers explained. “Your friends, the people you were with. The more intellectual, the more that you could take in, the more you could give back. When people think of the Black Panthers, they think of the marketing, but being a Black Panther was making breakfast, fixing people’s houses, washing the streets. That’s what we really did. I’ve never been in a confrontation with a cop in my life! Even after the political life, if you will.”
“I was born in New York City, I knew everyone. If something bad happened to me, people would help me, we grew up together,” he continued. “In the ’80s, when I was this out of control coke head, if a cop pulled me over, they’d say ‘Hey Nile, what are you doing?’ as they saw my coke-incrusted nostrils. I’ve never been arrested once for drunk driving, and I’ve drunk driven a lot. It was just life, a kid growing up. There was no big hidden agenda.”
Later in the conversation, Rodgers claimed that music, and specifically disco, had more of a political impact than the Black Panther Party. “When I grew up, it felt like the beginning of the women’s movement, the gay movement, the civil rights movement ramping up. Everything became much more powerful, which is exactly why I became a disco musician,” he candidly explained. “I’ll never forget when I walked into a disco for the first time. I was this really snobby jazz musician, and my girlfriend worked as a waitress at a jazz club. We walked into a disco, and we saw gay people, Latin people, Asian people, black people and white people all dancing and having a blast”.
He added: “I remember thinking to myself, ‘Wow, this is more political than anything I’d ever been involved in, more than anything I’d ever seen.’ The whole concept on any movement I’d been in was to bring people over to your side. I walked into a disco and saw all these disparate people getting along, within about an hour, I knew I wanted to be a part of that. Whatever it had been, super hippy or super jazz, I didn’t care. I wanted to be with those people dancing.”
The interviewer offered that hip-hop perhaps had a larger political impact than disco. In response, Rodgers opined that, as an ancestor of hip-hop, disco takes the apical position. “Disco was more,” he exclaimed. “It’s funny, someone sent me a little film the other day, and they were talking about the history of hip-hop, about DJ Kool Herc going from Jamaica to the Bronx. I know all these guys! It felt like finally someone was telling the truth: that hip-hop came from disco. There was no hip-hop, they were dancing to beats in disco songs. That was the music all these guys were listening to.”
