The one thing you'll notice when you're walking through Harlem is every single passing car is playing different music and there's also music that's being played out of windows. Cheo Hodari Coker More Quotes by Cheo Hodari Coker More Quotes From Cheo Hodari Coker When I was a critic, I reviewed Public Enemy's 'Muse Sick-n-Hour Mess Age' - this is back in '94 - and I called it a 'Dante-esque spiral of the hip-hop hell.' I idolized Chuck D, but I just hated that record, and I did not hold back. Chuck didn't freeze me out. Every time I met Chuck, he always treated me with the utmost respect. Cheo Hodari Coker me respect age time Police officers see everything, and they experience everything, and they don't always act correctly. Cheo Hodari Coker see always experience police The Caribbean is such a rich place, and Jamaica, personally, is one of my favorite places in the world. I've been lucky to, on various projects, to have spent a lot of time down there. Cheo Hodari Coker place rich time world Really, the arc for the first season of 'Luke Cage' is 'hero.' How does one become a hero? What does one feel about being a hero? How does one live their life and eventually go through the Elizabeth Kubler-Ross stages of grief until the acceptance is, 'Fine, I'm a hero.' This is what it is. Cheo Hodari Coker feel grief hero life Fatherhood is something that is personal to me because I didn't grow up around my father. Cheo Hodari Coker grow personal me father Even though I'm not Jamaican, I've always loved Jamaican culture because, to me, it's the island of magic, it's the island of politics, of resistance. Cheo Hodari Coker loved me politics culture All Blaxploitation is, is the opportunity for an African-American cast or lead actor or actress to do the same things that a white action hero gets to do. Cheo Hodari Coker hero white action opportunity My mom and dad met at U. Conn., and their lives couldn't have been more different in terms of their upbringing. Cheo Hodari Coker mom-and-dad dad different mom I just always feel that any black art should address our perpetual struggle for progress and freedom, period. There's no way around it. The thing is you can never predict what the next injustice is going to be. Unfortunately, it's part of being black and conscious in America. Cheo Hodari Coker you black freedom art The reason I keep making so many musical metaphors with 'Luke Cage' is that I don't view it as much a television show as I do a concept album with dialogue. Cheo Hodari Coker view dialogue reason television The power that you have as a storyteller is to be able to tell stories that are at once entertaining but also never lose sight of what's going on in the real world. Cheo Hodari Coker lose you power world I just felt that Danny Rand within the Luke Cage universe... I just felt that he was going to be dope. Cheo Hodari Coker going just dope universe The thing about being black in a mostly white industry, particularly as a black male, is you can't lose your temper in the same way. Essentially, you are an angry black man losing his temper in a way that's unprofessional, as opposed to an industry that has protected unprofessional white males in perpetua. Cheo Hodari Coker you man angry black Hip hop fans are obsessed, and they're geeks about hip hop. Comic book fans are also geeks, and when you can meld the two, then you open the world up to, I think, communities that will just take to each other. Cheo Hodari Coker think you book world The Luke Cage you saw in Season One was a reluctant hero. He was trying to figure out if he wanted to be a hero in the first place. And then fate intervened and forced him to step up his game. Cheo Hodari Coker step game you hero You can't really say that Bushmaster or Mariah Dillard is a bigger bad, because they both do some pretty heinous things. Cheo Hodari Coker say bad things you Most superheroes, when you look at origin stories - before they invent their costume, they just go with what's around. Cheo Hodari Coker just go look you I finally achieved my dream by being a TV showrunner. Cheo Hodari Coker finally achieved being dream The thing that was fascinating and frustrating about Pac was that he clearly knew better than to go down the gangster road that he went down. Pac knew - and he was right - that thug energy could be redirected into fearless positivity. Cheo Hodari Coker gangster road down better My era was '90s Carhartt-and-Timberlands hip-hop. That's my rock n' roll. Cheo Hodari Coker era roll hip-hop rock