“Voting is like washing your [behind] in the morning,” says Public Enemy front man and cultural commentator Chuck D.  “When you’re an adult, you don’t HAVE to wash your [behind]. No one makes you. But if you don’t, and something stinks, it just might be you!”

The Hard Rhymer was addressing an exciting, albeit sparsely attended Detroit Rocks The Vote event at Detroit’s Fillmore Theater. Sponsor African American Family Magazine invited nearly a dozen of the region’s hottest music acts, guest speaker Chuck D and Atlanta soul crooner Anthony David for what was advertised as a huge, non-partisan voter rally. In the end, a bill of some of Detroit’s best independent artists – international favorites like Black Milk, Guilty Simpson, eLZHi of Slum Village, Phat Kat, The Go, Black Bottom Collective, The Muggs, jessica Care moore and Nadir’s Distorted Soul – played to a mostly empty room.

“We have to get out of this mindset that more is better because it isn’t always true,” an undeterred Chuck D told the gathering. He used the Electoral College as an example, and cited the 2000 U.S. presidential election where the candidate with the most popular votes didn’t make it to the White House.

The featured speaker’s main goal was to demystify politics. He explained that understanding politics is as simple as understanding who is responsible for what goes on in the world around us. Unfortunately, most of us know more about our favorite ballplayer’s statistics than we do about important statistics in our lives.

“Don’t believe the hype” about the presidential election, Chuck said. Citizens should be just as concerned about local issues as they are about the federal race. “You need to be thinking about who’s running for school board,” he said.

Chuck provided some more “real talk” when he revealed that the oil heat at his New York home is costing him $295 dollars a month. “I can handle it because I work my [behind] off, but how many people do you think could afford that?”

He cautioned that the nation’s economic difficulties will get worse before they get better. And no matter who wins the White House on November 4 we should brace for the worst on November 5.

“You need to set up your four-year plan. I’ve got my four-year plan,” Chuck said.

It’s all just part of being an adult.