Chuck D and his rock-oriented outfit Confrontation Camp recently pulled out of the Vans Warped Tour, but the longtime Public Enemy frontman isn’t missing much else.

One of the first artists to embrace the possibilities offered by digital music technology, Chuck D signed a deal with Internet label Atomic Pop, makes regular posts in the Terrordome section of the Public Enemy website, and has weekly Internet radio shows: "When the Shit Hits the Fans" and "Beats Rhymes and Life" on bringthenoise.com and "Planet of the Tapes" on rapstation.com.

On the phone from his studio in Atlanta, Chuck D explained Confrontation Camp’s recent exit from the Warped Tour. "We had eight dates given to us on the West Coast. It was not feasible at that time to do it with no record and the amount of money given us to make the West Coast trip." Of the new record "Objects in the Mirror Are Closer than They Appear," Chuck D said it’s "definitely in the vein of what Kid Rock and Limp Bizkit try to do. It’s like really aggressive rap and poetry with singing over metal."

In recent years, Chuck D’s involvement with the Internet has elevated him to the role of spokesman for artists who look to the new technology as a means to obtain fairer contracts and better interaction with fans. Chuck D began looking for alternate avenues and forums to get his music to the public after a much-publicized dispute with his former label Def Jam.

"I got involved with it because of the cost of presenting music. It got to a point where somebody at the label told me an album had to have $750,000 behind it to be a hit on the radio stations. I come from a world where my first record cost $17,000 and where you try to make art for as little expense as possible and get it to the public."

The recent proliferation of file-swapping programs such as Napster and Gnutella have made getting-it-to-the-public cheaper--much cheaper than some artists are comfortable with. While some artists view the free trading of their music as copyright infringement, Chuck D sees the file-trading systems as the new radio, a shifting paradigm the industry is going to have to get a grip on.

"File sharing doesn’t fit into the old template. By the year 2002, you’re going to see a million artists and a million labels on the Internet and the old industry rules won’t apply. People say big lawyers are going to take over the Internet. They can’t find everybody. They’re not gonna be able to sign everybody. People are gonna rebel and use this to rebel."

One form that this rebellion is taking is Internet radio, which allows Chuck D to broadcast his two radio shows from wherever he happens to be at the time and without having to water down the content to keep watchdog organizations like the FCC happy. Under traditional radio format even the title of "When the Shit Hits the Fans" (a program featuring unsigned artists) would be unacceptable. And it’s equally unlikely that Chuck D could reach an international audience with his Saturday hip-hop news show "Beats, Rhymes and Life" using previous radio formats.

Working outside the major labels means working without the long marketing arm they provide. But for an established artist like Chuck D, moving outside the mainstream still works pretty well. "It’s perfect for me. Hip-hop is an underserviced genre anyway. I’ve gotten involved with the web because of the lack of services to hip-hop and rap in the traditional realm."

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