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Ta-Nehisi Coates

Ta-Nehisi Coates - Ta-Nehisi Coates is a senior editor for The Atlantic, where he writes about culture, politics, and social issues for TheAtlantic.com and the magazine. He is the author of the memoir The Beautiful Struggle. More

Born in 1975, the product of two beautiful parents. Raised in West Baltimore—not quite The Wire, but sometimes ill all the same. Studied at the Mecca for some years in the mid-’90s. Emerged with a purpose, if not a degree. Slowly migrated up the East Coast with a baby and my beloved, until I reached the shores of Harlem. Wrote some stuff along the way.

Really How Hard Were You?

By Ta-Nehisi Coates
Aug 27 2009, 2:40 PM ET Comment

The general consensus among hip-hop twenty years ago (yes it's been that long) was that the music was a rebellion against soft, over-synthesized, mushy R&B. De La called it Rhythm and Bullshit. PMD said, "Hardcore, no R&B singer." This is simplistic, I know, but I definitely saw myself as part of some sort of hardcore music movement. And yet when I look back at what I was actually playing back then, and what's endured, a lot of it is joints like "Jamaica Funk," "Never Too Much" or even "Candy Girl." Or Starpoint...



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