Public Enemy were officially inducted into The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame this morning, following Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five in 2007, Run DMC in 2009 and the Beastie Boys in 2011. Also inducted today were Rush, Heart, Randy Newman, Donna Summer and Albert King.

“It’s not an achievement for Public Enemy per se as much as I think it’s an achievement for hip-hop and rap music to be legitimized,” Chuck D told Billboard. “Us going in is a win for our peers like Kurtis Blow or KRS-One, Queen Latifah. (Already inducted) Run-DMC, the Beastie Boys, Grandmaster Flash & the Furious 5, they’re our peers, and I feel thankful we’re joining that list, but also we look to shine the light on so many others and tell them that this is their induction, too.”

“I’ve thought since day one that we should be recognized as much as anybody in rock,” he adds. “That’s always been my fight, to make this genre as official and legitimate as other artists.”

“As DJs, we played all that music, and we play it today,” he says of other genres of music. “We consider ourselves students of music, musicologists, so somebody like Deep Purple and Chic, they mean the world to us. We’re not gonna say the people that didn’t get in are less worthy. We just love music.”

Let’s see Dr. Dre or N.W.A. next…..