HIP-HOP STUDIES CONSORTIUM (HHSC)
About
Last year, Hip-Hop celebrated its 50th year as a cultural form in America. In its early era, Hip-Hop was often criticized as nihilistic and misogynistic. Many dismissed it as a momentary cultural phase that would not last long term. Five decades later; however, Hip-Hop is still here and shows no signs of dissipating. In fact, scholars, activists, politicians, business owners, and leaders are becoming increasingly aware of the importance of the culture and the power Hip-Hop asserts. It is a cultural phenomenon embraced throughout the world!
Hip-Hop operates in various communities as a means to disseminate knowledge, facilitate awareness, and promote mobilization and action. From Brazil to Ghana to South Africa and Britain, Hip-Hop represents a medium and cultural art form: it is a diasporic force.
In recognition of hip-hop's global impact, the Center for Studies on Africa and Its Diaspora and the Department of Africana Studies at Georgia State University are excited to announce the Hip-Hop Studies Consortium (HHSC). Housed in CSAD, The HHSC follows the models of Harvard University’s HipHop Archive and Research Institute and the Hip-Hop Initiative at the University of California, Los Angeles’ Ralph J. Bunche Center for African American Studies.
Through this consortium, CSAD and Africana Studies will co-host artists-in-residence, a speaker series, a biennial global Hip-Hop conference, the establishment and building of relationships with Atlanta’s Hip-Hop leaders (artists, performers, industry executives, journalists and non-profits), and the housing of a political rap database.
Fellows
Akua Naru
Our first inaugural fellow is the famed artist Akua Naru. Her website describes Akua as a hip-hop artist, poet, producer, lecturer and activist. Scholar Dr. Cornel West has called her the "Toni Morrison of hip-hop. Akua Naru has released four albums thus far... "The Journey Aflame (2011)”, “Live & Aflame Sessions (2012)”, “The Miner’s Canary (2015)”, and “The Blackest Joy (2018). She has an upcoming album in April 2024. Naru was a 2018-19 Nasir Jones Fellow at the Hutchins Center for African & African American Research at Harvard University and a 2019-20 Race & Media Fellow at the Center for the Study of Race & Ethnicity in America at Brown University.
With the release of her 2011 debut album, "...the Journey Aflame," Akua Naru entered the scene a titanic force of Liberation politics on beats, a true wordsmith whose music, deeply nuanced, poetic and wise, centers the experiences of Black women through rhyme, along a sonic spectrum from Jazz to Soul. Called the “Toni Morrison of Hip Hop” by acclaimed scholar Dr. Cornel West, Akua Naru’s journey, like her debut album, has been set aflame.
Emile YX
We welcome South African Hip-Hop activist, artist and educator Emile YX. Emile YX is a multiple award-winning South African Hip Hop Elder, founder of the pioneering breakdancing crew Pop Glide Crew from 1982, Hip Hop group Black Noise formed in 1988 and Heal the Hood Project started in 1998. In 1993 he created South Africa’s 1st Hip Hop Magazine, Da Juice. In 1997, he was part of the South African breakdance team that won 3rd place at the World Breakdance Champs, Battle Of The Year.
He has since raised funds to send more than 250 young artists to international Hip Hop events. In 2010, the Heal the Hood Project won the award for being the best hip-hop organization in the world. In 2016 he won the National LeadSA Award and the ETV South Heroes Award. In 2019, he was inducted into the South African Hip Hop Museums Hall of Fame. He has recorded and released 26 albums solo, with Black Noise in Mixed Mense. He has been featured on numerous compilation albums released throughout the world. Emile has written and contributed to 24 books, for which he won The Western Cape Arts & Culture Literary Award. His latest book is Reconnect the String. He created and performed five plays, one being the award-winning play Afrikaaps.
He made numerous events like African Battle Cry, African Hip Hop Indaba, Positive Posters Week, Up the Rock and Shut Up Just Dance, to name a few. He is the first to create a Hip Hop Cultural Education based Arts Syllabus derived from experiential learning and teaching through his Practical Hip Hop School, Mixed Mense. Emile has shared the stage with famous artists and personalities like President Nelson Mandela, Dr Alan Boesak, Brenda Fassie, The Queen of Sweden, Baba Maal, Salif Keita, Manu Dibangu, Snoop Doggy Dog, Kyle Shepherd, Arrested Development and numerous others. In 2020, he completed an International B-boy / Breaking Dance Teaching Certificate. Completed four new books in 2022: Hip Hop Cultural Education, We Live This, co-written by Paulskeee, A Colorful Life and Making A Black Noise Part 1 and contributed to a book titled The 5th Element. He also won the 2022 American Association for Applied Linguistics Distinguished Public Service Award."
Director of the Hip-Hop Studies Consortium
Dr. Lakeyta Bonnette-Bailey
Dr. Lakeyta Bonnette-Bailey is a Professor of Africana Studies at Georgia State University, the Co-Director of the Center for the Advancement of Students and Alumni (CASA) and the Director of the Hip-Hop Studies Consortium.
She recently published a co-edited volume with Jonathan Gayles entitled Black Popular Culture and Social Justice: Beyond the Culture (Routledge Press, 2023) and with Adolphus Belk Jr entitled For the Culture: Hip-Hop and Social Justice (University of Michigan Press, 2022). Additionally, Dr. Bonnette-Bailey published (2015) Pulse of the People: Rap Music and Black Political Attitudes.
In 2018, she was a Nasir Jones/ W. E. B. Du Bois Hip-Hop Fellow at Harvard University.
Contact Us
Center for Studies on Africa and Its Diaspora
Mailing address:
College of Arts & Sciences
P.O. Box 4038
Atlanta, GA 30302-4038