美国国家公共电台 NPR Keepers Of The Underground: The Hiphop Archive At Harvard

 

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:

Today we begin a new series with our friends The Kitchen Sisters, producers Nikki Silva and Davia Nelson - stories of activist¹ archivists, rogue² librarians, curators, collectors and historians, keepers of the culture. The first one is called "Archiving The Underground," and it takes us to the Hiphop Archive and Research Center at Harvard.

9TH WONDER: Every artform has their standards that they've placed in the canon. Mathematics, science - everybody has their greats, and somebody placed them there. People in visual art world say, hey, OK, this is what's going in the Louvre. This is it. And I think hip-hop needs the same thing. This is the archive.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "EVERYTHING IS EVERYTHING")

LAURYN HILL: We 'bout³ to set...

MARCYLIENA MORGAN: Archiving the underground is what we do. The Hiphop Archive began at UCLA - late '90s. I taught urban speech communities there. Students said, we want to do work on hip-hop. I said, that's performance, but it's not a speech community. They said, we'll be back.

They came back with the most amazing projects. They showed the elements of hip-hop - rapping, MCing, poetry or rhyming, B-boy, B-girl dance and graffiti art - and what it meant to their lives.

I'm Marcyliena Morgan, founding director of the Hiphop Archive and professor of African and African-American studies at Harvard University.

My students, when they were graduating, would say - I collected this. This is from hip-hop.

9TH WONDER: Boombox.

MORGAN: You have to keep it.

9TH WONDER: Turntable.

MORGAN: I'm a linguistic⁴ anthropologist⁵. Anthropologists love material culture.

9TH WONDER: Adidas.

MORGAN: I couldn't throw it away.

9TH WONDER: Spray paint they use to graffiti.

MORGAN: So I started having all this stuff. Then all these students were like, well, I think it should be called an archive because an archive is important.

9TH WONDER: Pieces of hip-hop history.

(SOUNDBITE OF NAS SONG)

HENRY LOUIS GATES JR.: I remember when Marcy shared her idea with me. And I thought, oh, my God. I'm no fan of hip-hop. But you didn't have to be Albert Einstein to realize that this was a brilliant idea, the world's first archive of the hip-hop and rap movement. Imagine if someone had thought of this when jazz was at its zenith. Why don't we have the Jazz Archive at Harvard? Of course, it would have been turned down. But in retrospect⁶, they would have been a genius. I'm Henry Louis Gates Jr. professor at Harvard, director of the Hutchins Center for African & African-American Research.

9TH WONDER: Why hip-hop at Harvard? Harvard is a high level of genius, so is hip-hop to me. My name is Patrick Douthit. My stage name is 9th Wonder. I am a DJ, music producer, college professor and Nasir Jones Hiphop Fellow at Harvard. This global phenomenon needs to be studied.

ROBERT RUSH: Hip-hop music is a form of keeping records and a form of archiving culture.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "THIS IS HOW WE DO IT")

MONTELL JORDAN: (Singing) This is how we do it.

RUSH: My name is Robert Rush, from the South Bronx, intern⁷ here at the Hiphop Archive. My earliest hip-hop memory would be at my mom's house in the crib. She used to play Montell Jordan's "This Is How You Do It," The Notorious B.I.G.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "JUICY")

THE NOTORIOUS B.I.G.: (Rapping) One-room shack⁸ - now my moms...

RUSH: Those were the sounds that soothed⁹ me. They were lullabies that spoke¹⁰ to the experience that I was having. I remember when Biggie said the line, Christmas missed us. Me and my mom, we used to go through struggles. We didn't necessarily have all the material resources.

(SOUNDBITE OF THE NOTORIOUS B.I.G. SONG, "JUICY")

BRIONNA ATKINS: My name is Brionna Atkins, media and publications coordinator¹¹. Besides collecting memorabilia and caring for it, we also have a Classic Crates¹² project archiving 200 classic hip-hop albums curated by 9th Wonder.

9TH WONDER: Classic Crates - we'll have the album in question, Nas' "Illmatic," all the participants. Then on top of that, you have all the samples and the records that they came from - the Stanley Clarke record, the Michael Jackson "Thriller¹³" album, Joe Chambers¹⁴' "Mind Rain." In order to be well-versed in the culture, you have to be an encyclopedia¹⁵. The Hiphop Archive - what we're doing is creating a family tree.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

JUSTIN PORTER: The archive, I would label it as a living, breathing, evolving analysis of hip-hop. My name is Justin Porter, senior at Harvard College, doing research on the Fugees' "The Score" album.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "THE BEAST")

FUGEES: (Singing) Warn the town the beast is loose.

HAROLD SHAWN: We are in the heart of Harvard Square, a cross-campus walk away from the Hiphop Archive. We have formed a partnership¹⁶ with the Loeb Music Library to house the Classic Crates collections. I'm Harold Shawn, program director of the Hiphop Archive.

JOSH KANTOR: My name is Josh Kantor, assistant keeper, special collections for the Loeb Music Library. On display here is a 12-inch vinyl, 33 1/3 RPM pressing of the "The Miseducation Of Lauryn Hill" selected for Classic Crates in the display case next to a handwritten copy of Mozart's "Figaro."

(SOUNDBITE OF TURNTABLE NEEDLE LIFTING)

KANTOR: Play it, Side B - Kendrick Lamar, "To Pimp A Butterfly."

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "I (ALBUM VERSION)")

KENDRICK LAMAR: (Rapping) N-E-G-U-S - say it with me, or say it no more. Black stars can come and get me. Take it from Oprah Winfrey. Tell her she right on time. Kendrick Lamar, by far, realest Negus alive.

MORGAN: Hip-hop is more like the canary in the coal mine. When hip-hop starts talking about it, something is going on in society that we need to pay attention to.

HARRY¹⁷ ALLEN: The average black male is probably not going to, in his lifetime, hear his voice amplified¹⁸, tell anyone what to do or get to talk about his strengths or powers. But in hip-hop, you do all of that in a way that's romantic, captivating. And this has great power. My name is Harry Allen, Nasir Jones Hiphop fellow, Harvard University.

(SOUNDBITE OF PRESS CONFERENCE)

UNIDENTIFIED JOURNALIST: Mr. Nasir Jones, how do you feel that the creation of this fellowship will inspire other audiences to promote this culture?

GATES JR.: What do you think, Nas?

NAS: It's going to make them want to appreciate the culture. It's starting to open a lane in America. They're starting to want to see other American stories.

MICHAEL DAVIS: I think of the keepers as the ones who are on the ground right now. We're collecting the era and the zeitgeist, the spirit. And we're bottling it up for generations that we'll never see.

9TH WONDER: I'm trying to keep the torch lit that was passed from Tribe and Pete Rock and Lauryn and Queen Latifah that was passed to them from James Brown and Marvin Gaye and Steely Dan...

DAVIS: I see a lot of young people come through here.

9TH WONDER: ...Motown...

DAVIS: They see all this history...

9TH WONDER: ...Beach Boys...

DAVIS: And it just makes them dig more and more, more.

9TH WONDER: ...Muddy Waters...

DAVIS: Then they become the keepers. I mean, this could be the seed.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "EXCURSIONS")

A TRIBE CALLED QUEST: (Rapping) Back in the days when I was a teenager, before I had status and before I had a pager, you could find...

MARTIN: "Archiving The Underground" was produced by The Kitchen Sisters, Davia Nelson and Nikki Silva, along with Nathan Dalton and Brandi Howell. It was mixed by Jim McKee. You can hear more stories from "The Keepers" on their podcast The Kitchen Sisters Present.

1 activist   

n.活动分子，积极分子

参考例句：

• He's been a trade union activist for many years.多年来他一直是工会的积极分子。
• He is a social activist in our factory.他是我厂的社会活动积极分子。

2 rogue   

n.流氓；v.游手好闲

参考例句：

• The little rogue had his grandpa's glasses on.这淘气鬼带上了他祖父的眼镜。
• They defined him as a rogue.他们确定他为骗子。

3 bout   

n.侵袭，发作；一次(阵，回)；拳击等比赛

参考例句：

• I was suffering with a bout of nerves.我感到一阵紧张。
• That bout of pneumonia enfeebled her.那次肺炎的发作使她虚弱了。

4 linguistic   

adj.语言的，语言学的

参考例句：

• She is pursuing her linguistic researches.她在从事语言学的研究。
• The ability to write is a supreme test of linguistic competence.写作能力是对语言能力的最高形式的测试。

5 anthropologist   

n.人类学家，人类学者

参考例句：

• The lecturer is an anthropologist.这位讲师是人类学家。
• The anthropologist unearthed the skull of an ancient human at the site.人类学家在这个遗址挖掘出那块古人类的颅骨。

6 retrospect   

n.回顾，追溯；v.回顾，回想，追溯

参考例句：

• One's school life seems happier in retrospect than in reality.学校生活回忆起来显得比实际上要快乐。
• In retrospect,it's easy to see why we were wrong.回顾过去就很容易明白我们的错处了。

7 intern   

v.拘禁，软禁；n.实习生

参考例句：

• I worked as an intern in that firm last summer.去年夏天我在那家商行实习。
• The intern bandaged the cut as the nurse looked on.这位实习生在护士的照看下给病人包扎伤口。

8 shack   

adj.简陋的小屋，窝棚

参考例句：

• He had to sit down five times before he reached his shack.在走到他的茅棚以前，他不得不坐在地上歇了五次。
• The boys made a shack out of the old boards in the backyard.男孩们在后院用旧木板盖起一间小木屋。

9 soothed   

v.安慰( soothe的过去式和过去分词 )；抚慰；使舒服；减轻痛苦

参考例句：

• The music soothed her for a while. 音乐让她稍微安静了一会儿。
• The soft modulation of her voice soothed the infant. 她柔和的声调使婴儿安静了。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》

10 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

11 coordinator   

n.协调人

参考例句：

• The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, headed by the Emergency Relief Coordinator, coordinates all UN emergency relief. 联合国人道主义事务协调厅在紧急救济协调员领导下，负责协调联合国的所有紧急救济工作。
• How am I supposed to find the client-relations coordinator? 我怎么才能找到客户关系协调员的办公室？

12 crates   

n. 板条箱, 篓子, 旧汽车 vt. 装进纸条箱

参考例句：

• We were using crates as seats. 我们用大木箱作为座位。
• Thousands of crates compacted in a warehouse. 数以千计的板条箱堆放在仓库里。

13 thriller   

n.惊险片，恐怖片

参考例句：

• He began by writing a thriller.That book sold a million copies.他是写惊险小说起家的。那本书卖了一百万册。
• I always take a thriller to read on the train.我乘火车时，总带一本惊险小说看。

14 chambers   

n.房间( chamber的名词复数 )；（议会的）议院；卧室；会议厅

参考例句：

• The body will be removed into one of the cold storage chambers. 尸体将被移到一个冷冻间里。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Mr Chambers's readable book concentrates on the middle passage: the time Ransome spent in Russia. Chambers先生的这本值得一看的书重点在中间：Ransome在俄国的那几年。 来自互联网

15 encyclopedia   

n.百科全书

参考例句：

• The encyclopedia fell to the floor with a thud.那本百科全书砰的一声掉到地上。
• Geoff is a walking encyclopedia.He knows about everything.杰夫是个活百科全书，他什么都懂。

16 partnership   

n.合作关系，伙伴关系

参考例句：

• The company has gone into partnership with Swiss Bank Corporation.这家公司已经和瑞士银行公司建立合作关系。
• Martin has taken him into general partnership in his company.马丁已让他成为公司的普通合伙人。

17 harry   

vt.掠夺，蹂躏，使苦恼

参考例句：

• Today,people feel more hurried and harried.今天，人们感到更加忙碌和苦恼。
• Obama harried business by Healthcare Reform plan.奥巴马用医改掠夺了商界。

18 amplified   

放大，扩大( amplify的过去式和过去分词 )； 增强； 详述

参考例句：

• He amplified on his remarks with drawings and figures. 他用图表详细地解释了他的话。
• He amplified the whole course of the incident. 他详述了事件的全过程。