Acclaimed music journalist, author, critic, and essayist, Greg Tate, has died of undisclosed causes.

WBGO’s Nate Chinen broke the news of Tate’s passing on Twitter late Tuesday morning, sparking an industry-wide salute to the critic. “Absolutely gutted to learn (from a trusted source) that Greg Tate has left this dimension. What a hero he’s been — a fiercely original critical voice, a deep musician, an encouraging big brother to so many of us,” Chinen wrote.

Born and raised in Dayton, Ohio before relocating to Washington, D.C., Tate was a musician first, learning guitar in his teens and forming several bands throughout his years. As a film and journalism major at Howard University, Tate sharpened his pen, developing a writing voice that was strong, loud, and profound. He joined The Village Voice as a staff writer in 1987 (a post he held for nearly two decades,) but gained broader popularity in 1992 with the release of Flyboy in The Buttermilk, a collection of essays on Black music, Afrofuturism, and the early years of rap’s golden era, simultaneously cementing his status as both “the godfather of hip-hop journalism” and your favorite music critic’s favorite music critic. Tate’s work has also been featured in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Essence, VIBE, and Rolling Stone, where he reviewed Kendrick Lamar’s To Pimp a Butterfly in 2015.

Papa Greg Tate has joined the ancestors. The Godfather of hip-hop criticism. An expansive, gentle soul. His only violence was intellectual. (& it was beautiful & most of them folks deserved it!) He taught me/all of us so many things about so many things. Thank you, Greg. pic.twitter.com/5RL1c2Tggg

— Jeff Chang (@zentronix) December 7, 2021

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