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9th Wonder Unveils His "Hip-Hop Rubric" for Classics on PBS' 'The Open Mind'
9th Wonder Unveils His "Hip-Hop Rubric" for Classics on PBS' 'The Open Mind'
Source: PBS

9th Wonder Unveils His "Hip-Hop Rubric" on PBS' 'The Open Mind'

A thoughtful discussion on how 9th Wonder's scholarly hip-hop pursuits are immortalizing a culture

Throughout its 60 years on PBS, The Open Mind has remained a running catalog of history's most influential doers and thinkers.

READ:Faith Evans Slid 9th Wonder Unreleased Biggie Vocals to Remix The King & I [Exclusive]

Past guests include Malcolm X, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Muhammad Ali and Oliver Sacks, amongst literally hundreds of others. Sadly, they don't dip into music (or even entertainment) very often, unless their subject falls flush at the cross-section of their field and some corner of policy, science or education. As hip-hop's first fellow at Harvard University, 9th Wonder, and his scholarly pursuits were a natural fit for the longest running program on Public Broadcasting. In their 30-minute chat, 9th and the show's host/heir, Alexander Heffner (whose grandfather, Richard D. Heffner, created the show) delve into the seemingly impossible task put before the North Carolina producer and accredited hip-hop historian: canonizing a culture and its respective movements as to both celebrate its impact and subject it to the same academic vigor afforded to jazz, blues and classical forms of music.

READ: 9th Wonder Selects 4 Hip-Hop Classics To Be Preserved in Harvard's Library

Watch 9th Wonder break down his "hip-hop rubric" on The Open Mind above. Stay tuned for whatever he and Salaam Remi are cooking up with The Roots.