Hip-Hopdraws Growing Academic Interest

Singer Sharon Jones dies at 60 SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 2016 38 Mari Vartmann and Ruben Blommaert of Germany perform during the pairs free skating at the Ice Dance short dance at the Cup of China ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating in Beijing yesterday. — AFP Global Citizen Festival India Hip-hop draws growing academic interest he forgotten music of Boston's early hip-hop studies professor at Northeastern University. "It's and rap scene is being revived by two unlikely really rich for analysis in all kinds of contexts." Theroes: a local college and the public library. Some scholars still question whether hip-hop Researchers at the University of Massachusetts has a place in academia, but its acceptance is grow- Boston have been working with the Boston Public ing, said Forman, who was a Nasir Jones fellow last Library to compile an online archive of demo tapes year. University presses have published dozens of by the city's top hip-hop and rap artists of the textbooks on rap and hip-hop's political and cultur- 1980s. Opening to the public on Saturday, the al importance. Scores of graduate students have Massachusetts Hip-Hop Archive was created in part taken on similar topics for their dissertations. For to reclaim the city's role in the genres' history. "It's archivists in particular, there has been a surge of been an untold story," said Pacey Foster, a rap histo- interest in preserving the artifacts of hip hop, espe- rian and professor at UMass. "Boston is not a city cially from its early days in the 1970s and 1980s, that has had its rightful place in the early stories of Forman said. "A lot of the early materials are at risk hip-hop history." of disappearing," he said. "People don't want to be The archive aims to connect new audiences to carrying around all the ephemera, the concert fliers early rap artists such as the Almighty RSO, Guru, and promotional materials." and others who have faded from memory even in Other schools with major hip-hop archives Boston. But the project is also intended to spark include Harvard and Cornell University. Four his- academic interest in the city's rap and hip-hop torically black colleges in Atlanta house the note- roots. Like a growing number of US colleges, UMass books and letters of rap icon Tupac Shakur. The Indian Bollywood actresses Sonakshi Sinha (left) and Vidya Balan pose for a photo- is encouraging students to approach hip-hop as a new archive at UMass features almost 300 demo graph on the red carpet in Mumbai yesterday. scholarly subject. Several students have already tapes, along with audio from a local radio show started research tied to the archive, and the univer- whose host was credited with discovering many sity launched a new course on hip-hop in 2014. of Boston's biggest acts. Most of the artists aren't It joins dozens of other schools nationwide that household names, but Foster said their work cap- have added classes on hip-hop in recent years, ana- tures the youthful spirit of a time when artists lyzing its value to fields from sociology to women's were seeking a new sound. "It will have natural studies. At Bowie State University, a historically interest for academics," Foster said. "This collec- black college in Maryland, students can earn a tion is a very complete look at a scene that minor in hip-hop studies. The University of Arizona nobody has heard about, at a moment when rap says it offered the nation's first hip-hop minor in was just exploding."— AP 2012. A year later, the rapper Nasir Jones - known as Nas - established a fellowship at Harvard University for scholars of hip-hop. "There are so many dimen- Tupac Shakur sions to the culture," said Murray Forman, a media Indian Bollywood and Hollywood actress Indian Bollywood actress Sonam BOSTON: Pacey Foster, a rap historian and professor at UMass, reviews with A collection of hip-hop cassette tapes and memorabilia from the 1980’s are Freida Pinto poses for a photograph on Kapoor poses for a photograph on the a collection of hip-hop cassette tapes and memorabilia from the 1980’s at displayed at the Boston campus of the University of Massachusetts in the red carpet at the 2016 “Global Citizen red carpet. — AFP photos the Boston campus of the University of Massachusetts in Boston. Thanks to Boston. — AP photos Festival India” to end extreme poverty by UMass, the world will soon have access to 300 unreleased demo tapes from 2030 yesterday. the early days of Boston hip-hop. .

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