What up Blavity fam,

You all might know me from talking trash to Spike Lee in the form of an essay, but most of the time I’m actually just a poet. One week this winter myself and my homie Kevin Coval wrote, edited and recorded a short collection of poetry called 1989, The Number. The title comes from the Public Enemy song “Fight The Power” and was made famous in the film Do The Right Thing. For myself and Kevin, that film and that year hold a lot of significance. I was born in ’89 and it was when Kevin began to become more deeply engaged in hip-hop. So many of the issues and opportunities of that moment of ’89 we see replicated in the current moment. The book tackles some of those questions of police violence, gentrification and other political issues. We also talk fly about the illest rap records of that period (Too $hort) and the dopest ballplayers (Air Jordan). It’s a fun book/mixtape that you can read or listen to, and we hope you do both. Also we wrote it and made it happen in a week on our Drake/Future ish. We hope you enjoy 1989. What a time to be alive.

All love,

Nate Marshall

P.S. Young Metro definitely trusts us.

**Check out 1989, The Number here.**

1989

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