The anxiety is mounting whenever I open up a social network. We are losing pivotal figures at a rapid rate – each announcement feels like an ambush. Artists, musicians especially, will always be huge inspirations. But I have to give it up to the writers too, no doubt. They are all mentors. Because without them, would I be doing what I do?

Well Greg Tate was all of the above and more. When I first contemplated puttin’ down words for a living, there were certain scribes and texts that were required reading. I think it was a review in an early issue of Straight No Chaser magazine that put me on to Flyboy in the Buttermilk, Greg's essays on contemporary America, where he raged curiously through the prisms of race, politics, literature and music.