You talked about trying to approximate music in your work.

And you were definitely trying to approximate hip hop and jazz and funk.

Yeah.

Well, I mean, before I started writing for the voice, I did a lot of radio, a lot of free-form radio.

I had a show that came on from like midnight to five in the morning called Strange Ribrations from the Hardcore. That was also an inspiration too, you know, just mixing on the ones and twos, you know, late night, freeform radio, you know.

How is that an inspiration for the writing?

Well, because you just realized that there are no boundaries.

You know what I mean?

There's no limits.

DJing to me is all, you know, it's all about the segue, you know what I mean, how you kind of flow between one vibe to another vibe, you know what I mean?

So, you know, some of that writing, I'm giving you some street vernacular.

I'm giving you some like critical, French critical theory terminology, you know what I mean?

And then then I'll give you just like a plain spoken kind of sentence too.

Greg Tate is one of the greatest writers of the modern era.

I was shaped as a writer by reading his work, especially in his collection,

Flyboy in the Buttermilk.

And being in awe of his style, his brilliance, his thought process, I was transformed

as a writer by getting involved with his work.

And when I moved to New York and met him and was able to call him on the phone and talk about writing and culture for hours, I was so moved.

He's amazing to talk to, a true genius.

Here we go.

It's the legend Greg Tate on Toray show.

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