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Flyboy in the Buttermilk
  • Published: 29 September 2026
  • ISBN: 9781837314027
  • Imprint: Penguin Press
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 368
  • RRP: $30.00

Flyboy in the Buttermilk

Formats & editions
Paperback
29 Sept 2026
EBook
2 July 2026
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An electrifying collection of essays from legendary cultural critic Greg Tate, with an introduction by Hanif Abdurraqib and a foreword by Questlove

From one of the most original, creative, and provocative writers on American culture comes a now-classic collection of essays, delving ‘far and wide into Black music, into film, into the beats and rhyme of culture’ (Questlove).

These pieces orbit social, pop cultural, political, and economic subjects­— from the rise of hip-hop, the art of Jean-Michel Basquiat, the music of Miles Davis, James Brown, Jimi Hendrix, Bad Brains, and many others, to the crisis of the Black intellectual and the irony of the GOP recruiting Black Americans. With unrivalled flair, Tate writes in a voice that is at once angry, joyous, self-critiquing, and dazzlingly witty.

Tate teaches us ‘it is not too late to say too much, to be so dissatisfied with the world as it is that we throw far too many words toward the sky, and see what the heavens throw back’ (Hanif Abdurraqib).
  • Published: 29 September 2026
  • ISBN: 9781837314027
  • Imprint: Penguin Press
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 368
  • RRP: $30.00

About the author

Greg Tate

Greg Tate (1957–2021) was a music and popular-culture critic and journalist whose work appeared in many publications, including The Village Voice, Vibe, Spin, The Wire, and Downbeat. He was the author of three books of cultural criticism, winning a posthumous Pulitzer Prize in 2024 in recognition of his pioneering work. Tate, via guitar and baton, also led the conducted improvisation ensemble Burnt Sugar the Arkestra Chamber.
GT

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Praise for Flyboy in the Buttermilk

One of the most captivating and original collections of arts criticism ever written.

Orion

Truly seminal

Jazzwise

Required reading for music criticism fans.

Chicago Reader

One of the godfathers of hip-hop journalism.

The Source

A clinic on literary brilliance.

Jelani Cobb

A singular voice, a fount of bravura essays on the fantastical creativity, determined resilience and wry paradoxes of Black creativity and life.

The New York Times

Restores a blueprint for criticism in the 21st century. The cultural gravity of this book makes it an essential part of any library on Black aesthetics, music criticism, and art criticism.

John Rodzvilla, Library Journal

One of a handful of books I regularly pull off the shelf just to soak in a few paragraphs and juice the brain up into writing mode . . . Flyboy is a handbook for preserving your own wild sanity under the terrordome. You should pilfer it from your best friend’s bookshelf posthaste.

Carl Wilson, Bookforum

Hits hard with the truth, again and again.

Sasha Frere-Jones, 4Columns