Greg Tate war ein Musik- und Popkulturkritiker und Journalist, dessen Arbeiten in zahlreichen Publikationen erschienen. Er war bekannt für seine Essays, die die Beziehung zwischen Musik, Rasse und der amerikanischen Gesellschaft scharfsinnig analysierten. Sein Schreiben zeichnete sich durch intellektuelle Tiefe und eine leidenschaftliche Auseinandersetzung mit künstlerischem Schaffen aus, insbesondere im Bereich der Schwarzen Kultur. Tate leitete auch das international tourende Ensemble Burnt Sugar The Arkestra Chamber, was seine Verbindung von kritischem Denken und künstlerischer Praxis widerspiegelt.
Village Voice columnist Greg Tate offers essays and tales of American music and culture, from Be-Bop to Hip-Hop. He examines music, books, newspaper reporting, and more to explore such issues as racism, poverty, sexism, homophobia, and political and economic injustices from a black point of view.
White kids from the ’burbs are throwing up gang signs. The 2001 Grammy winner for best rap artist was as white as rice. And blond-haired sorority sisters are sporting FUBU gear. What is going on in American culture that’s giving our nation a racial-identity crisis?Following the trail blazed by Norman Mailer’s controversial essay “The White Negro,” Everything but the Burden brings together voices from music, popular culture, the literary world, and the media speaking about how from Brooklyn to the Badlands white people are co-opting black styles of music, dance, dress, and slang. In this collection, the essayists examine how whites seem to be taking on, as editor Greg Tate’s mother used to tell him, “everything but the burden”–from fetishizing black athletes to spinning the ghetto lifestyle into a glamorous commodity. Is this a way of shaking off the fear of the unknown? A flattering indicator of appreciation? Or is it a more complicated cultural exchange? The pieces in Everything but the Burden explore the line between hero-worship and paternalism.Among the book’s twelve essays are Vernon Reid’s “Steely Dan Understood as the Apotheosis of ‘The White Negro,’” Carl Hancock Rux’s “The America’s First ‘Wiggas,’” and Greg Tate’s own introductory essay “Nigs ’R Us.”Other contributors Hilton Als, Beth Coleman, Tony Green, Robin Kelley, Arthur Jafa, Gary Dauphin, Michaela Angela Davis, dream hampton, and Manthia diAwara.