Hip-hop pioneer Rakim made history, whom fans and fellow M.C.s call the "God M.C.," stood on a stage yesterday far from the streets that reared him to deliver the commencement address for the Johns Hopkins University's prestigious Peabody Conservatory.
Rakim considered one of hip-hop's greatest lyricists, didn't just drop knowledge; he left with academia's top honors, an honorary degree from Johns Hopkins University, and the George Peabody Medal for Outstanding Contributions to Music and Dance in America.
Rakim became the first rapper to receive the Peabody Medal, a historic milestone that puts him in lofty company. He shares the distinction with creative giants Stevie Wonder, Quincy Jones, Herbie Hancock, Yo-Yo Ma, Misty Copeland, and Ella Fitzgerald. Not bad for a Long Island kid who once rewrote the rules of rap with nothing but a pen and a mic.
The Peabody Medal is the institute's highest honor, awarded to a beacon for excellence in music and dance education. Rakim is a long-overdue addition to that list for many. With a voice that injected jazz-like improvisation into the center of hip-hop and lyrics that made the English language sound like an instrument, Rakim redefined what it meant to be an MC.
For a genre that has long struggled for respectability in highbrow quarters, it's full circle time. For decades, hip-hop was degraded by institutions that now develop curricula around its history and impact. Not only was it symbolic for Rakim to step to that commencement podium, but it was also seismic.
To the Peabody Conservatory graduates, his remarks surely landed differently. There was an artist who never kowtowed to trends, whose artistry reinvented music, telling them to believe in their truth, a living testament to the idea that innovation doesn't ask for permission to be profound.
In so doing, Johns Hopkins and the Peabody Institute acknowledged that rap isn't just a cultural revolution but a genuine, life-changing art form worth the focus, respect, and, yes, the fêting at the highest levels.
Rakim didn't release a new album this week, but he may have accomplished something even greater: reminding the world that words can move more than crowds when given shape and form through skill, vision, and soul.
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