Durham producer named to Kennedy Center Hip Hop Council

Other members of the council include Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson, Common, Fab 5 Freddy, Grant Hill and MC Lyte.LL Cool J, another member of the council, was the first rapper to be a Kennedy Center Honors recipient.

Q-Tip from A Tribe Called Quest was named the artistic director and advisor-at-large for hip-hop culture.

"I consider them as important to our culture as Bach or any other composer," said pianist Jason Moran, the center's artistic director for jazz.

Moran is credited with pushing for this change. He was part of the committee that chose Q-Tip to found the hip-hop department.

"He's the perfect person to advocate for us," Moran said. "It had to be someone from the bedrock of hip-hop."

One of America's pre-eminent performing arts institutions, the Kennedy Center has gradually introduced rap music into its programming, with rappers like Nas and Kendrick Lamar performing with the National Symphony Orchestra. Hip-hop has also been showcased regularly at the center's daily Millennium Stage concerts.

The Hip Hop Culture Council is designed to celebrate hip hop's role as a "catalyst for innovation, exploration, and transformation with a dynamic mix of performances, humanities events, film screenings, workshops and interactive experiences, in person and online," according to the Kennedy Center's website.

Last year's Kennedy Center Honors program — an annual centerpiece event — may have been one of the blackest nights in the history of the institution. In addition to LL Cool J — whose program included a speech by Queen Latifah and a performance by rapper Busta Rhymes — the honorees included African-American singer Lionel Richie and dancer Carmen De Lavallade. Cuban-American singer Gloria Estefan was also saluted. The only white honoree was TV producer Norman Lear, the man who helped bring black family life into mainstream culture with shows like "Good Times" and "The Jeffersons."

The 2017-18 season, Q-Tip's first at the helm, kicked off with a performance by him and Moran. The veteran rapper calls it "just a flash of our potential."

He plans to appoint a "brain trust" council of fellow rappers and says the real impact will be felt around year four or five when both sides are more comfortable with each other.

"I have to grow into the position and the Kennedy Center has to get acclimated to the nuances that exist in our thing," Q-Tip said.