Public Enemy’s Chuck D has asked people to stop using the rap group’s song Burn Hollywood Burn as a soundtrack on videos of the California wildfires, saying it has “nothing to do with families losing everything they have”.
The rapper issued the statement on the weekend in response to several videos uploaded to TikTok and Instagram that use the 1990 Public Enemy song over footage of the wildfires, which have killed at least 24 people, destroyed more than 12,300 buildings and displaced more than 200,000 people so far.
“Burn Hollywood Burn is a protest song,” the rapper wrote in a statement that he shared online. “Extracted from the Watts rebellion monikered by the magnificent Montague in 1965 against inequality when he said ‘burn baby burn’ across the air.
“We made mind revolution songs aimed at a one-sided exploitation by an industry. Has nothing to do with families losing everything they have in a natural disaster. Learn the history. Godspeed to those in loss.
“Please don’t use our song on your reels and pictures of this horrifying natural disaster,” he added.
Since last Tuesday, wildfires have continued to break out and burn across Los Angeles county, with thousands of homes and buildings incinerated in the suburbs of Pacific Palisades, Eaton Canyon, Malibu and the Hollywood Hills.
The two biggest wildfires – Palisades and Eaton – are still less than 30% contained, with officials in California warning on Sunday that strengthening winds in the coming days threaten to spread the destruction further.
The fires have consumed about 62 sq miles (160 sq km), the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (Cal Fire) reported. All the confirmed deaths have come from the Palisades and Eaton fires, which officials said were only 11% and 27% contained, respectively, by early Sunday. The death toll is expected to rise.
Hollywood has been greatly affected by the fires, with many celebrities losing their homes in Pacific Palisades and Malibu, including Billy Crystal, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Anthony Hopkins, Jeff Bridges, Mel Gibson, John Goodman, Paris Hilton, Cary Elwes, John C Reilly and Eugene Levy.
Meanwhile, actor James Woods revealed his house survived the Pacific Palisades fire, days after he emotionally told CNN that it was likely gone. It was “a miracle”, he wrote on X on Friday, adding: “We managed to get to our property and our home, that we were told [was] gone forever, is still standing.”
On the weekend, Disney announced it would donate US$15m (A$24.3m) to fire relief assistance groups, including the American Red Cross and the Los Angeles Fire Department Foundation. Paramount, Fox and Warner have also each announced US$1m donations for various relief agencies.
Actor Jamie Lee Curtis, whose house in Pacific Palisades has survived the flames, said on social media that her family foundation would donate US$1m to “start a fund of support for our great city and state and the great people who live and love there”.
