In Mos Def's "Hip Hop," he asks, "Who choosing your fate, yo/We went from picking cotton, to chain gang line chopping/To be-bopping, to hip-hopping..." (lines 29-31). Also, at the end of the rap, he states, "Do whatever you say do, but Black, it can't save you" (line 64). Mos Def sees blackness and black history as integral to his definition of hip hop. Compare Mos Def's "Hip Hop" to Between the World and Me. "Do you think Ta-Nehisi Coates would agree with Mos Def's ideas about race?