“There are more serious things in the world right now than April Fool’s jokes and dropping records,” Flavor Flav tweeted after Chuck claimed the firing was to promote a new album.

The public feud between Flavor Flav and Chuck D reached a boiling point in early March when Public Enemy announced that Flav was fired from the group. As it turns out, the whole dust-up appears to have been an elaborate April Fools ruse to help promote a new album from Chuck’s project Enemy Radio. Loud Is Not Enough is out now (listen below), and it features a single with both Chuck and Flav called “Food as a Machine Gun.”

In an interview with Talib Kweli on the Uproxx podcast People’s Party (recorded on March 10), Chuck said he was inspired by Orson Welles’ War of the Worlds hoax. He outlined some recent discussions with Flav about public opinion of both men. “We felt that over the past few years, Flavor’s stock was low,” Chuck said. “Anybody that could take a shot at him could get a good shot at him.” Meanwhile, Chuck said that his own stock had been on the rise due to Prophets of Rage’s success. Chuck then described how he and Flav apparently created a public breakup narrative while collaborating on new music and staying in contact behind the scenes. Watch the interview excerpt below.

“There are more serious things in the world right now than April Fool’s jokes and dropping records,” Flavor Flav tweeted after Chuck claimed the firing was to promote a new album.

I am not a part of your hoax .@mrchuckd,,,there are more serious things in the world right now than April Fool's jokes and dropping records,,,the world needs better than this,,,you say we are leaders so act like one,,,donate to those in need here: https://t.co/7hioasSwuV

— FLAVOR FLAV (@FlavorFlav) April 1, 2020

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