Harvard University has created the Nasir Jones Hip Hop Fellowship in honor of the legendary rapper Nas.

The fellowship, created by the Hip Hop Archives and the W.E.B. Dubois Institute, will fund scholars and artists who are connected to the Hip Hop world.

"I am immensely over-the-top excited about the Nasir Jones Hip-Hop Fellowship at Harvard. From Queens, NY to true cultural academia. My hopes are that freed for knowledge, art, self-determination and expression go a long way. Ir is a true honor to have my name attached to so much hard work, alongside great names like Henry Louis Gates, Jr and W.E.B. Dubois and to such a prestigious and historical institution, and all in the name of music I grew to be a part of."

Nas is celebrated for his conscientious lyrics and deep thinking. He is most known for his hits, "If I ruled the World (Imagine That)," "Sweet Dreams" and "I can".

To learn more about the Nasir Jones Hip Hop Fellowship and Harvard's Hip Hop Institute, click here.

Rap pioneer Darryl 'DMC' McDaniels, of Run D.M.C, is not too pleased with the state of Hip Hop.

 "What bugs me about Hip-Hop is that we created it so against everything that is on MTV and BET today," he said. "The real gangsta rap told a story and said, 'Shorty, you can do something better than that.'"

The legendary artist also spoke on the lack of respect this generation has for its' Hip Hop pioneers.

 "I was kind of disappointed in the culture of Hip Hop. Grandmaster Flash was the first group to be inducted into the Rock Hall, and people did not celebrate it," DMC said."When press came knocking [for our induction], I said 'Before you come talk to me you need to talk to Grandmaster Flash.'"

Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five became the first rap group to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2007 .

 Run D.M.C was inducted in 2009.

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Grammy-winning producer 9th Wonder wants to bring Hip Hop to a college near you.

The producer will teach a class on Hip Hop at Harvard University after being accepted into the Harvard Fellows Program in March of last year.

He spoke on the lack of Hip Hop in upper education , especially in Historically Black Colleges.

"It's incredible to me that they don't study (Hip Hop) at every Black College," he said. "I think that it's just a sign of times, man. It happened with Jazz. Jazz was studied somewhere else first. African-studies was studied somewhere else first. At some point we have to break that cycle. There are some: Florida A&M, North Carolina AT&T State University, And then you have some that don't want that because they think that we're gonna teach about what happened on BET last night."

9th Wonder will present his research at Harvard University on February 6th.

Pioneer rapper Ice T premiered his Rap Documentary, Something from Nothing:The Art of Rap, on Wednesday night.

The documentary features interviews with Hip Hop's greatest legends and details the history of the amazing, yet misunderstood genre.

"I was looking at the state of hip hop, which has gotten a little pop for me, and I just wanted to document where we came from," said Ice T. "I don't feel rap has been respected as an art form. Because people have seen rappers rap off the top of their heads, they don't think it is difficult."

Watch a preview (below):


The documentary hits theaters on Friday.

(Source)