Taking a break, I saw Ta-Nehisi Coats posted this great DJ Honda/Mos Def song from forever ago, so I relaxed with the beer my office is letting me drink at work and heard Mr. Definitely say:

This thing called rhyming no different from coal mining/ we both on assignment to unearth a diamond.

It sounds beautiful, and he delivers it with such expertise that your head naturally nods, but think about that for one second. I’m neither a coal miner nor a rapper, but it’s impossible to believe that any coal miner sees himself in Mos’ craft. And I’m pretty sure that the purpose of coal mining isn’t actually to extract diamonds. Though I guess Mos Def is using the slang “black diamonds” to denote coal, so I suppose I must rule that part in bounds.