"Gathered here we have a body of work a generation in the making that will certainly shape our thinking, listening, and seeing for generations to come. Greg Tate is the standard-bearer; his critical sensibilities are matched only by his ability to render them in stunning prose. The power and charisma of his intellect emanate from the page. In the tradition of Ellison and Baraka, but unlike them, shaped by the best of Black feminism, Tate forges his own brilliant path." -- Farah Jasmine Griffin "The premier hip-hop writer of his generation, a stunning prose stylist, and the inventor of a whole new approach to music and cultural criticism, Greg Tate has been to hip-hop what Albert Murray is to jazz: the standard-setter for a generation of intellectuals who care deeply about race, art, and the future." -- Ann Powers "Tate has been an important if underread critic for the past several decades, and this collection will allow more readers to discover him. Not a fast or simple read, but a worthwhile one for fans of music and culture." -- Craig L. Shufelt Library Journal "Flyboy 2 will be like no other collection of writing you will read this year, and probably this decade. Refer back to the original Flyboy book to whet your palate, and to note and compare the evolution of Tate's voice and his perception of the world and music around him. Take comfort in knowing that there is a Black writer who has no choice but to be real, poised and dignified, denying all pressures to bastardize the class and power of Black arts criticism and literary excellence." -- Jordannah Elizabeth Amsterdam News "Whether you are new to his work or a longtime reader, the universe of Black magic lovingly curated in Flyboy 2 will do your soul good." -- Steven W. Thrasher The Guardian "Flyboy 2 is an immersive, fluid, and genre-bending collection of commentary, essays, and exposition of the self, a beautiful text solidly grounded in the critical theories of late twentieth- and early twenty-first-century academia." -- Patty Comeau ForeWord Reviews "What Flyboy 1 and 2 show is that Tate has come a long way in the study of this, the feared black planet and, in so doing, came out a more skilful, more humble man. What his style won't let me forget is this: we are simultaneously in command of this world, and others." -- Kwanele Sosibo Mail & Guardian "What made Tate's criticism special was his ability to theorize outward from his encounters with genius and his brushes with banality-to telescope between moments of artistic inspiration and the giant structures within which those moments were produced... Tate has a keen sense for the way that both artists and communities discern where they fit in the world, and what is expected of them, and then either go along for the ride or carefully plot their escapes." -- Hua Hsu The New Yorker "[T]hought-provoking... There's lots to unpack in Tate's writing, challenging us to come along for the ride--if we're up to it." -- David Hershkovits Paper Magazine "A Rolling Stone contributor, Greg Tate's ferocious, slang-tinged salvos and deep-rooted historical analysis have inspired readers and intimidated colleagues for decades. This sequel to the 1992 collection Flyboy in the Buttermilk felt particularly acute in the context of 2016's nonstop stream of racial horror, whether Tate is delineating visual artist Kara Walker's unflinching slavery-era silhouettes or eulogizing Richard Pryor and Michael Jackson..." -- Michaelangelo Matos Rolling Stone

Greg Tate is a music and popular culture critic and journalist whose work has appeared in many publications, including the Village Voice, Vibe, Spin, the Wire, and Downbeat. He is the author of Flyboy in the Buttermilk: Essays on Contemporary America and Midnight Lightning: Jimi Hendrix and the Black Experience and the editor of Everything but the Burden: What White People Are Taking from Black Culture. Tate, via guitar and baton, also leads the conducted improvisation ensemble Burnt Sugar the Arkestra Chamber, who tour internationally.

Introduction: Lust, of All Things (Black) 1 1. The Black Male Show Amiri Baraka 9 Wayne Shorter 16 Jimi Hendrix 24 John Coltrane 41 Gone Fishing: Remembering Lester Bowie 44 The Black Artists' Group 50 Butch Morris 55 Charles Edward Anderson Berry and the History of Our Future 57 Lonnie Holley 68 Marion Brown (1931-2010) and Djinji Brown 71 Dark Angels of Dust: David Hammons and the Art of Streetwise Trancendentalism 73 Bill T. Jones: Combative Moves 78 Garry Simmons: Conceptual Bomber 81 The Persistence of Vision: Storyboard P 83 Ice Cube 91 Wynton Marsalis: Jazz Crusader 102 Thonton Dail: Free, Black, and Brightening Up the Darkness of the World 110 Kehinde Wiley 124 Rammellzee: The Ikonoklast Samurai 127 Richard Pryor: Pryor Lives 136 Richard Pryor 146 Gil Scott-Heron 149 The Man in Our Mirror: Michael Jackson 152 Miles Davis 158 2. She Laughing Mean and Impressive Too Born to Dyke: I Love My Sister Laughing and Then Again When She's Looking Mean, Queer, and Impressive 167 Joni Mitchell: Black and Blond 175 Azealia Banks 177 Sade: Black Magic Woman 180 All the Things You Could Be by Now If Iames Brown Was a Feminist 186 Itabari Njeri 193 Kara Walker 196 Women at the Edge of Space, Time, and Art: Ruminations on Candida Romero's Little Girls 202 Ellen Gallagher 208 To Bid a Poet Black and Abstract 210 "The Gikuyu Mythos versus the Cullud Grrrl from Outta Space": A Wangechi Mutu Feature 213 Come Join the Hieroglyphic Zombie Parade: Deborah Grant 219 Bjork's Second Act 223 Thelma Golden 228 3. Hello Darknuss My Old Meme Top Ten Reasons Why So Few Black Women Were Down to Occupy Wall Street Plus Four More 235 What Is Hip-Hop? 239 Intelligence Data: Bob Dylan 242 Hip-Hop Turns Thirty 246 Love and Crunk: Outkast 252 White Freedom: Eminem 254 Wu-Dunit: Wu-Tang Clan 256 Unlocking the Truth vs. John Cage 260 4. Screenings Spike Lee's Bamboozled 265 It's A Mack Thing 270 Sex and Negrocity: John Singleton's Baby Boy 272 Lincoln in Whiteface: Jeffrey Wright and Don Cheadle in Susan-Lori Parks's Topdog/Underdog 275 The Black Power Mixtape 278 5. Race, Sex, Politricks and Belle Lettres Clarence Major 285 The Atlantic Sound: Caryl Phillips's The Atlantic Sound 288 Acocalypse Now: Patricia Hill Collins's Black Sexual Politics; Thomas Shevory's Notorious H.I.V.; Jacob Levenson's The Secret Epidemic 290 Blood and Bridges 292 Nigger-'Tude 296 Triple Threat: Jerry Gafio Watts's Amiri Baraka; Hazel Rowley's Richard Wright; David Macey's Frantz Fanon 299 Bottom Feeders: Natsuo Kirino's Out 306 Scaling the Heights: Maryse Conde's Windward Heights 307 Fear of a Mongrel Planet: Zadie Smith's White Teeth 310 Adventures in the Skin Trade: Lisa Teasley's Glow in the Dark 313 Generous Hexed: Jeffery Renard Allen's Rails under My Back 315 Going Underground: Gayl Jones's Mosquito 317 Judgment Day: Toni Morrison's Love and Edward P. Jones's The Known World 320 Black Modernity and Laughter, or How It Came to Be That N*g*as Got Jokes 322 Kalahari Hopscotch, or Notes toward a Twenty-Volume Afrocentric Futurist Manifesto 330 Sources 343 Index 347