Georgia State University’s Center for Studies on Africa and Its Diaspora (CSAD) and the Africana Studies Department are looking to make GSU the Southern leader in the study of hip-hop culture through the new Hip-Hop Studies Consortium (HHSC).
For more than 50 years, hip-hop has not just influenced music, but it’s created an entire culture. Which is why universities like Harvard and the University of California, Los Angeles have set up research institutes and initiatives centered around hip-hop studies. These universities hope to bring hip-hop artists and scholars together to share their knowledge on the culture and learn from one another.
Lakeyta Bonnette-Bailey, a professor in the Africana Studies Department, is the director of this new consortium. She said this is something she’s been working on for a while.
“This is something I’ve been thinking about for about 10 years. The consortium is focused on the academic understanding of hip-hop and its culture,” Bonnette-Bailey said.
Bonnette-Bailey has been studying hip-hop for years and has even traveled to Harvard’s Hiphop Archive & Research Institute to further delve into her research as part of the prestigious Du Bois Fellowship.
“Laketya has been leading efforts in academic engagement in hip-hop for years at Georgia State,” said Jonathan Gayles, chair of the Africana Studies Department. “She’s published books on the subject and has curated a national hip-hop conference. This Hip-Hop Studies Consortium was her idea.”
Beyond just her research focus, Bonnette-Bailey said Georgia State’s location played another factor in the creation of the consortium.
“With us being in Atlanta, which has been deemed a hip-hop mecca, it’s essential that we have this consortium,” she said.
The Atlanta area has produced some of the biggest names in hip-hop — OutKast, Ludacris, T.I. and Childish Gambino, just to name a few.
One aspect of the consortium is a hip-hop fellowship program. The program invites artists, scholars and those involved in hip-hop studies to visit Georgia State for at least a week. While visiting the Atlanta Campus, the fellow will give a public lecture, visit classrooms and meet with Georgia State faculty involved in hip-hop studies.
“We hope to invite two people per year to visit GSU for this hip-hop fellowship program. We also hope one of those people is an artist or activist from Atlanta,” Bonnette-Bailey said.
In March, the first fellow, hip-hop artist, activist and poet Akua Naru, made a trip to Georgia State. This month, Emile YX?, an award-winning South African break-dancer who now calls Atlanta home, will visit Georgia State’s Atlanta Campus for a week as part of the hip-hop fellowship program.
Along with the fellowship program, Bonnette-Bailey hopes to host a biennial hip-hop studies conference at Georgia State, and host and maintain a digital political rap database.
“We hope to set Georgia State up as a place where hip-hop studies occur and a place where we are embracing the culture beyond just listening to the music,” Bonnette-Bailey said
