S. Samuel
Rap veteran Nas is reportedly going to be honored by prestigious school Harvard University for his run in the rap game and, ultimately, his lyrical talent by the creation of a hip-hop fellowship.
Details of the rap mogul’s achievement surfaced online Tuesday (July 16).
Nas will be honored at the Hip-Hop Archive and the W. E. B. Du Bois Institute at Harvard University, to establish the Nasir Jones Hip-Hop Fellowship. The Fellowship will provide selected scholars and artists with an opportunity to show that “education is real power,” as it builds upon the achievements of those who demonstrate exceptional capacity for productive scholarship and exceptional creative ability in the arts, in connection with the genre. The mission of the Hip-Hop Archive is threefold: to seek projects from scholars and artists that build on the rich and complex hip-hop tradition; to respect that tradition through historically grounded and contextualized critical insights; and most importantly, to represent one’s creative and/or intellectually rigorous contribution to hip-hop and the discourse through personal and academic projects. Personal projects of fellows may include manuscript projects, performance pieces, album work, curriculum planning, primary archival research, and exhibition preparation, among others. (The Grio)
God’s Son has already issued a statement on the mega honor.
“In my rollercoaster of a life I’ve endured good and bad for sure, and I’ve truly been blessed to have achieved so much thru art in my short life thus far,” he states. “But I am immensely over-the-top excited about the Nasir Jones HIP-HOP Fellowship at Harvard. From Queens, N.Y., to true cultural academia. My hopes are that greed for knowledge, art, self-determination and expression go a long way.” (Statement)
A couple months ago, G-Unit’s 50 Cent called Nas one of hip-hop’s greatest storytellers.
“I think It Was Written, Nas’ second album, he had a song where he was the gun and it was one of those things that had a strong impression on hip-hop culture at that point,” 50 explained in an interview. “A song that was like, wow, good metaphors, strong, and it gave you a visual and he’s one of the great storytellers within hip-hop music culture and that within R&B music, would be something that happens so common that it wouldn’t have any significance. You’re used to that metaphor at that point.” (Hard Knock TV)
Last year, Southern hip-hop artist David Banner appeared at Harvard University as a guest speaker.
On April 27 and 28 Harvard University will be hosting “The LA Riots: Twenty Years Later Conference,” and rapper and producer David Banner is scheduled to make an appearance. The purpose of the conference is to look back at the LA riots, and to see where we as a society are at today as a result of the riots. The Conference will include leading scholars, activists, and artists examining the riots and how they reflect on discrimination and democracy today. (RapFix)
