What do a 1978 Technics turntable, Django Unchained action figures, and the Banksy book Wall and Piece have in common? They're just a few of the thousands of artifacts being preserved and studied at the Hiphop Archive and Research Institute, a hip-hop headquarters within Harvard's ivy-covered walls. Overseen by Marcyliena Morgan, PhD, we asked her to take us behind the musical epicenter.


OPR050119_034
PAT GREENHOUSE/THE BOSTON GLOBE

"In the early 1990s, I was teaching a linguistic anthropology course at UCLA. For one assignment, I asked students to analyze a speech community, or a group that shares attitudes about language use and practices. A number of them wanted to focus on hip-hop, but at the time, I didn’t see hip-hop as a culture. A few days later, about 15 students came to my office with a presentation on hip-hop’s elements: its poetry, its wordplay, the underground society it had created.

They opened my eyes to the fact that hip-hop wasn’t necessarily profane, misogynistic, or many of the other labels given to it. Rather, it’s a whole world view—a set of cultural and political beliefs and values embraced by its members, who see hip-hop as a way to speak the truth. And when those students graduated, they brought me albums, magazines, posters—what anthropology calls material culture.

They said things like, ‘My mom is going to toss these, but we know you won’t because you’re an anthropologist, and anthropologists don’t throw away material culture.’ They were right! In 2002, when I started teaching at Harvard, I brought these items with me and established the Hiphop Archive and Research Institute.

Hip-hop tells people from all walks of life that they’re not alone.

The archive feels like hip-hop—but it also feels like Harvard. That’s thanks to 20 students who thought about and debated how the space should look. Outside there’s a large black-and-white image of two female MCs rapping, as well as photos of Grandmaster Flash, Missy Elliott, and other hip-hop founders and legends. Inside, like any other serious space at Harvard, it’s filled with artifacts: copies of Vibe magazine, Run DMC action figures, slip-on Vans with Tupac Shakur’s face, music videos on TV screens, turntables, and of course, records from artists like the Notorious B.I.G. and Jay-Z.

One of my biggest challenges is getting people to recognize hip-hop as intellectually significant. Rather than look at the genre through the lens of one artist or song, think of it as a global and complex culture that values innovation and authenticity. It’s done more to crystallize urban African American youth identity than any other recent political or societal change.

xView full post on X

At the same time, I’ve seen white donors come here and get teary because hip-hop dance gave their daughters who were bullied the confidence to get through high school. People listen to this music to hear their own story—to hear someone talk about making it through a hard life, whether that’s being raised in poverty or a home where they were ignored. Hip-hop tells people from all walks of life that they’re not alone.”


Other captivating university archives

OPR050119_034
Science History Images / Alamy Stock Photo

What: Jerry Slocum Mechanical Puzzle Collection

Where: Indiana University

Wow Factor: Tinkerers will love this archive’s 30,000-plus puzzles, all of which require physical manipulation to be solved. For more than 80 years, puzzle enthusiast Jerry Slocum gathered IQ testers like tangrams, wooden polyhedrons, circular mazes, and Rubik’s Cubes (plus their predecessors and imitators) from Germany, Taiwan, the Netherlands, and the U.S. Smart moves!

OPR050119_034
THE HUMAN SEXUALITY COLLECTION AT CORNELL UNIVERSITY

What: Human Sexuality Collection

Where: Cornell University

Wow Factor: This archive illuminates shifting notions of desire and attraction, with a spotlight on LGBTQ histories. It includes tens of thousands of artifacts—both serious and sassy—like vintage vibrators, lesbian pulp novels, cocktail napkins from a midcentury nudist colony, a 1730 “wanted” poster from Amsterdam for eight men suspected of sodomy, and matchbooks from gay bars with winky names like Jocks Trap.

OPR050119_034
HARPERCOLLINS PUBLISHERS

What: David Walker Lupton African American Cookbook Collection

Where: University of Alabama

Wow Factor: These 450 volumes aren’t just recipe collections, they’re windows onto African American history and culture. Revealing reads include The House Servant’s Directory, published in 1827; Book of Molasses Magic (1956); Northern Fried Chicken: A Historical Adventure into the Black Community of Scranton, PA (1993); and, yes, Cookin’ with Coolio (2009).


For more ways to live your best life plus all things Oprah, sign up for our newsletter!


Headshot of Melissa Goldberg
Melissa Goldberg

Melissa is a former editor at Oprah Daily.