Whether you only listen to the radio or you’re a veteran crate digger, you’ve listened to and loved 9th Wonder’s music. Having worked with everyone from Jean Grae to Chris Brown, 9th Wonder has taken a step back from production duties to take on the academic world in recent years.

After stints at North Carolina Central University and Duke, 9th moved on to Harvard in 2012, where he serves as a fellow at the W.E.B. Dubois Institute led by Henry Louis Gates and Marcy Morgan.

9th’s research project, entitled These Are The Breaks, focuses on albums he calls “the standard of the culture.” He plans to work with 200 records, all of which will be entered to Harvard’s library for posterity at the conclusion of his research.

9th announced the first four albums he’ll be working with a few days ago: Nas’ Illmatic, Lauryn Hill’s The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, A Tribe Called Quest’s The Low End Theory and Kendrick Lamar’s To Pimp a Butterfly.

That’s right: 9th Wonder says Kendrick is up there with Nas, Lauryn Hill and Tribe Called Quest, and will be immortalized, I’m sure we can all agree rightfully, in the archives of Harvard University. Congratulations to them all.

Tribe Called Quest

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