Q-Tip was appointed as artistic director of Hip Hop culture at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in March 2016. As part of his role, the rapper kicked off the Center’s inaugural Hip Hop season last Friday (October 6) with a performance alongside jazz pianist Jason Moran.
In a newly published interview with NPR, Q-Tip explained why he believes his position will help “institutionalize” the genre Hip Hop.
“I think it’s a great opportunity for this country in a lot of different ways,” Q-Tip said. “A historic institution for arts such as the Kennedy Center that they would want to, in so many words, institutionalize Hip Hop because for so long the creators and the practitioners of the form were looked at as degenerates, uneducated hoodlums, you know saying provocateurs, cop killers, rapers, like all these different labels. So through all the black and blues, to able to have the Kennedy Center wrap up Hip Hop and claim it, like jazz before it and blues before it and so forth as a part of like a true American art form to kind of investigate, not only the rich foundation of hip-hop and its beginnings, but it helps people who may not be from this world to understand truly the complexity, what black complexity is.”
Q-Tip continued: “It would be great to see the Mormon family from Utah running into a family from Harlem, African-American family, and they both are looking at something or sharing something about Hip Hop whether it be like a Tupac display or a Grandmaster Flash DJ mix, and they see that they have something in common. The church of the arts, it’s a great idea.”
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Elsewhere, Q-Tip offered his thoughts on the current political climate in the United States, commenting on Donald and Melania Trump’s decision not to attend this year’s Kennedy Center Honors, marking a rare absence by a sitting president.
“One could really say given the climate that the lines have been clearly drawn, and there are sides now, like clear sides,” he said. “People are saying well I’m here, rocking with the white supremacists, wall-building, pussy-grabbing, name-calling, that’s my squad, who’s your squad? There’s a clear line drawn so some people may just be beyond it. I mean look, we are talking about our president, we got to talk about the elephant in the room, he’s so polarizing that he and his wife had to kind of decline the invitation to the Center, which is something since its inception, I believe since ’73 or ’74, that every sitting president happily went to because the arts is — it’s our biggest export in this country. It’s not oil, it’s not apples, it’s not cotton, it’sentertainment in all forms — media, sports, music. So when you have something as prestigious as the Kennedy Center that’s on your same lot and you’re that polarizing that you would have to excuse yourself from that — it’s real query.”
Elsewhere in the interview, Q-Tip took some time to remember Phife Dawg. His fellow A Tribe Called Quest rapper passed away in March of 2016 due to complications resulting from diabetes.
“It’s been difficult, but it’s good because we are here and it’s been a lot of growth through adversity,” Q-Tip said. “Once we realize you can get past it, it shapes and builds your character. And that’s something that is more than a silver lining, it’s a blessing. So although we have our emotional bouts with it as humans, it’s been of value, of good value.”
