Rap Research Lab

The Rap Almanac Just Got a Major Upgrade ✨ - https://mailchi.mp/42c4bc2d9e73/the-rap-almanac-just-got-a-major-upgrade-5861360

Just returned from the Dubai Future Forum 2025 feeling energized and inspired. It was a reminder that innovation is just as much a cultural practice as a technological one. Grateful for the insights, the creativity, and the expansion of my global network. ✨🌍

📖 Books of Remembrance Reading

Tahir Hemphill & Ainsley Burrows
🎧 DJ Set by CX KIDTRONIK

Thursday, October 23 | 6–8PM
Print Center New York
535 West 24th Street, New York, NY
🍷 Free and open to the public | Wine + beer open bar

Join us for the second-ever public reading from Book of Remembrance — a durational performance and public reading conceived and produced by Tahir Hemphill and performed by Ainsley Burrows.

As part of Hemphill’s expansive creative research practice, he has produced two bound volumes: a 200-page book compiling rappers with “Big” in their names and a 1,000-page book compiling rappers with “Lil” in theirs. Burrows will bring these texts to life in this live invocation and activation of the work.

🎥 Watch the first reading here: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=O6pIQTyD6JA

The Department of African & African American Studies and the Hiphop Archive & Research Institute at the Hutchins Center for African & African American Research are a small group of leading thinkers in the field for a one-day symposium about the future of Hip Hop Studies. Each of the four scholars will present a lecture on their own work and how it fits into new directions and critical concerns in the study of Hip Hop as a branch of popular music studies and Black popular culture studies. To conclude, Tricia Rose will deliver a “50 Year Reflection” on the state of the field of which she is a foundational figure.

Our razor sharp group of technologists, educators and artists worked to imagine artificial intelligence rooted in Black and Brown liberation at last weeks playtest.

After spending the afternoon thinking through the structure of a prompt battle - an event bringing communities of color together to design, play and gain greater familiarity with text-to-image AI software - we debated methods that could make this dream into reality.

The stakes are high when it comes to AI, and our vision for the prompt battle has the potential to help bridge the dangerous gap between Black and Brown people and the latest advancements in technology shaping our world.

We can't shift the culture without you! Join our newsletter at the to learn how you can support our upcoming playtest: Prompt Battle campaign.

From the Bronx to the world stage!

Today, hip hop makes its debut on the Olympic stage, two days before the culture was born on August 11th in 1973.

Olympic breakdancing isn’t the only hip hop monument taking root in Paris. Further along the Seine is Carlos Mare’s () “B-boy Headspinna,” a sculpture celebrating hip hop dancers in an abstract form.

Tag a b-boy or b-girl you wanna see at the next Olympics!

playtest: Practicum is nearly upon us! Don’t miss out on your chance to join this conversation about the applications and implications of on August 1st at 7:30pm.

💻 We’ll be joined by hacker, developer, operational security trainer, security researcher, and data journalist, Matt Mitchell.

📽️ Dallas-born multi-hyphenate Terence Nance will bring his perspective as an artist, musician and filmmaker to the stage.

🤖 Abran Maldonado, a technologist recognized as one of the first AI prompt engineers of the ChatGPT era, will share his expertise in generative AI and digital human design.

Read the full list of participating artists at the !

📍 John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
📆 August 1st, 7:30pm

Willonius Hatcher is an award-winning digital strategist, AI expert, and comedian, a modern renaissance man unafraid to break boundaries. He is the creator of Clubhouse’s first live serialized audio drama, critically acclaimed soap opera, 'The Young and The Thirsty.” Beyond the cultural impact of his renowned song "BBL Drizzy," Hatcher has also guided world-renowned brands like Samsung and Google to transformative marketing success.

Willonius will join our upcoming practicum as one of the artists and visionaries working to imagine collective experience of play, creativity, and experimentation that uses AI text-to-image software. After a private working session and brainstorm, artists will present their insights for critique and feedback from the audience.

There's only a few days left to get your ticket at the !

📆 August 1st, 7:30p
📍The REACH Pavilion

Embracing collaborative filmmaking practices, Rashid Zakat (@000000.ai) says he is “committed to video as a mode of honoring people and histories and as form of accessing liberation.”

Rashid combines film, music, photography, and creative space-making in work that engages with Black social and spiritual life. His short films, documentaries, and music videos feature original content and archival material, including images of migration, worship, uprising, dance, and popular culture.

Rashid is one of several amazing artists, thinkers, and technologists joining us for the Prompt Battle Practicum at the Kennedy Center on August 1st at 7:30pm! Don't miss the chance to join our conversation unpacking the implications of AI beyond bias this August - get your ticket at the !