Category: Hiphop

The Vision

Many of us spend our lives pursuing a certain vision. An idea, a dream, a blueprint. There is something we are supposed to work on, in this life. No matter what we do, and no matter what else we think we are doing, this is what we work on, every … Read the rest

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Does Nonviolence Work? Ta-Nehisi Coates and Maria Stephan

I’ve been trying for a while now to come to terms with the emergence of Ta-Nehisi Coates as the clearest voice of black defiance and determination during the police violence outrages of the past couple years. The appeal of Coates’s basic message of empowerment through self-awareness is obvious, but I … Read the rest

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Yak Ballz Does T. S. Eliot

it seems strange, like yellow smoke
pushin’ up against the window panes
and ain’t a damn thing changed
i know, cause i been trying to find an antidote
while women come and go
talking of michelangelo

What! These lyrics wafted past me this weekend during a family gathering, and stopped … Read the rest

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Philosophy Weekend: The Happiness of Adam Yauch

It’s hard for me to describe how big an influence the Beastie Boys have had on my life. During the late 1980s and early 1990s, I found lifesaving inspiration in records like Paul’s Boutique and Check Your Head that I could not have found anywhere else. If it were not … Read the rest

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