“I’m sorry. It’s not a white person’s place to have that conversation. It’s a Black person’s place to have that conversation…”

That was Sacha Jenkins while being interviewed about his Louis Armstrong documentary Black & Blues in 2022. Specifically, Jenkins was addressing Gary Gidden’s 1989 Armstrong documentary Satchmo and whether a white lens is ever qualified to examine the nuances of Black experience. As a Black man and as a communicator with generational storytelling gifts, Jenkins definitely was. On May 23, he died of what his wife, Raquel Cepeda, said were complications from multiple system atrophy, leaving a legacy that speaks to the power of the Black canonization of Black culture. An embodiment of “for us, by us,” Jenkins was more than just a commentator; he was an active, engaged participant in the culture he chronicled. He was one of hip-hop’s greatest journalistic voices because he didn’t just write about the art: he lived it.

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