Influential Black music and culture critic Greg Tate dies at 64

Greg Tate was known for being one of the most passionate and influential cultural critic of the last three decades. The journalist passed away at the age of 64.

Duke University Press, Tate’s publisher, confirmed the author’s death but did not reveal the cause of death.

A native of Dayton, Ohio, Tate studied film at Howard University and later moved to New York City. It was there he co-founded the Black Rock Coalition, which existed to advocate for Black artists across genres.

In 1987, Tate became a writer for The Village Voice where he asserted himself as a witty and daring critic of everything from hip hop, rock, jazz — even to Black identity.

His last piece was for The Nation back in September, giving an overview of the current Black cultural landscape through the book Afropessimism by Frank B. Wilkerson III.

“James Baldwin said, ‘To be a Negro in this country and to be relatively conscious is to be in a state of rage almost, almost all of the time,'” wrote Tate. “But what he didn’t say was that, on a good day, it is mostly a sublimated state of rage since folk got bills to pay and sanity to keep.”

Tate contributed to many different media outlets including Rolling Stone, the BBC, and The New York Times, and has authored and published noteworthy books including Midnight Lightning and Flyboy in the Buttermilk.