LEGENDARY HIP-HOP ARTIST CHUCK D has been touring the world ever since his band Public Enemy put out their first album in 1987. Now, at age sixty-three, Chuck is frequently asked how he manages to still put on such high-energy performances. His response is simple: he practices Pilates, a form of exercise and body conditioning that has become increasingly popular over the last decade (though it was originally developed by Joseph Pilates in the early twentieth century). Chuck’s appreciation for Pilates took a major leap in 2016 when he was setting out on a rigorous tour schedule with a powerful and energetic new band called Prophets of Rage (a supergroup including members of Public Enemy and Rage Against the Machine). Over the next four years, the group would perform to more than two million people across the globe. As Chuck admits, he simply could not have delivered on such a massive level without his practice of Pilates, under the guidance of trainer Kathey Lopez. In RAPilates, Chuck and Kathey present an illustrated program of Pilates exercises for people of all ages, including the over-forty crowd. The volume includes introductions from both Chuck and Kathy, which are followed by more than thirty mat-based Pilates exercises that are carefully explained by Kathy and beautifully illustrated in Chuck’s inimitable style that he has demonstrated in his previous books of visual art, including STEWdio and Summer of Hamn. Like those two books, RAPilates is published on Chuck’s Enemy Books imprint, which is hosted by Akashic.
