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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.
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Morning Coffee

By Ta-Nehisi Coates

Jan 31 2012, 9:00 AM ET Comment

Chuck D's politics have always obscured his actual MC cred, which is a little sad. In his day he lived in this weird place between Run-DMC volume and Rakim surrealism. Looking back I just appreciate how he erected at a mythology as a black nationalist superhero. Whereas most MCs only had to worry about the cops, sucker MCs or drug dealers, Chuck D was targeted by the greatest super-power ever known to man. Here you see the mythology in full-effect--with guns, sneering white people, prison guards and  EPMD all in effect.

When I was twelve, I just knew I was gonna grow up to be an S1W.



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