Harvard Opens Applications For Nas Hip-Hop Fellowship
Nas has spent many years insisting hip-hop deserves critical educational examine. At Harvard University, that argument now lives contained in the institution itself.
In 2013, Harvard’s Hutchins Center for African and African American Research launched the Nasir Jones Hip-Hop Fellowship. According to the college, it stands as the primary educational fellowship named after a hip-hop artist. The transfer marked a turning level, signaling how far rap tradition had traveled from park jams to Ivy League halls.
Born Nasir bin Olu Dara Jones, the Queensbridge MC reshaped lyrical requirements together with his 1994 debut Illmatic. He adopted with It Was Written and later reaffirmed his relevance via the King’s Disease trilogy. Outside the sales space, Nas has invested closely in preserving hip-hop historical past, together with a reported $2 million contribution to The Hip-Hop Museum deliberate for the Bronx.
The fellowship displays concepts Nas shared lengthy earlier than academia caught up. In 2013, he defined how early lyrics formed his considering.
“One thing that drew me to hip-hop was the things Kurtis Blow was saying, the things Melle Mel was saying,” Nas stated on the time.
Harvard University Announces 2026 Nas Hip-Hop Fellowship Application
He recalled asking elders to interrupt down bars from Run-D.M.C. and Rakim. “Hip-hop is important like computer science,” he added. “If you want to understand the youth, listen to the music.”
That perspective defines the fellowship’s mission. Harvard opens this system to writers, journalists, filmmakers, musicians, visible artists, and students throughout a number of disciplines.
Fellows arrive from Africa, Asia, Europe, the Caribbean, Latin America, and North America. Their work focuses on African and African American research and the broader African diaspora.
The program operates via the W.E.B. Du Bois Research Institute, with assist from the Marcyliena H. Morgan hip hop Archive and Research Institute. Participants examine hip-hop, artwork historical past, Afro-Latin American research, training, design, artistic writing, and associated fields.
Fellows participate in weekly colloquiums, workshops, and analysis classes whereas working from workplaces contained in the Du Bois Institute. Harvard selects as much as 20 students per cycle, with funding usually offered.
Applications for the 2026–27 academic year close on Jan. 30, 2026. For Nas, the fellowship confirms what hip-hop has all the time represented.
Knowledge, critique, and survival now maintain a everlasting seat at Harvard.
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