Hip Hop Initiative
Faculty Director: Dr. H. Samy Alim, Department of Anthropology
UCLA is a leading center for global hip-hop studies by way of artist residencies, community engagement programs, a book series, an oral history and digital archive project, postdoctoral fellowships and more. The initiative focuses on hip-hop as one of modern history’s most powerful cultural movements and most visible symbols of contemporary Black performance and protest. Through HHIs Artist-in-Residence Program (A-i-R) we have hosted award-winning music legend and pioneer Chuck D; award-winning filmmaker dream hampton; Los Angeles legend Medusa; Cape Town pioneer Emile YX?; and are currently hosting pioneering hip-hop journalist and award-winning feminist author Joan Morgan.