Marvel’s Luke Cage is a black superhero from New York with a conscience. And the creators of the hit Netflix series about him chose to name his adventures after after an appropriate musical inspiration. Each of the 13 episodes of the show’s first season are named after classic tracks by Gang Starr, the group that paired one of hip-hop’s greatest producers, DJ Premier, with Guru, the erudite and soulful MC who passed away in 2010. The Luke Cage episodes draw on song titles from the group’s first five albums, with a particular emphasis on their 1994 classic Hard To Earn, which featured tough guy anthems like “Code of the Streets” and “Suckas Need Bodyguards.”
