Marcyliena Morgan, Founder of Harvard’s Hip-Hop Archive, Dies at 75

Marcyliena Morgan, the founder of Harvard's Hip Hop Archive, has died at the age of 75. She passed away on September 28th in a Boston hospital due to complications from Alzheimer's disease. Morgan, a linguistic anthropologist in Harvard's African and African American studies department, conceived the idea for a hip-hop archive in the 1990s. Initially met with skepticism, her vision was to establish rap music and culture, which originated in the streets, as a subject worthy of serious academic study. Her groundbreaking work culminated in the opening of an early version of the archive in 2002. This collection of music, scholarly works, and other materials grew to become Harvard's Hip Hop Archive & Research Institute, housed within the university's Hutchins Center for African & African American Researc... download the app to read more