Thankful for Hip Hop, Thankful for This Community
It’s been a big month — and year. Here’s what I’m grateful for right now.
Hello friends. Still a bit high off of a great month for Hip Hop music and culture, and honestly, a pretty great year — including some major personal wins. The work many of you are doing, and your support of mine, is making a difference! Here are some quick updates from my end, and then on to some recent Hip Hop news that isn’t about dumb sh*t, to help remind us there are many things to thank this beautiful culture for, every day!
🗣️ Recap of Howard University’s 2025 Hip Hop Studies Conference
🏆 “Hip Hop Can Save America!” podcast wins Best Music Podcast Signal Award
🎁 Signed author copies of my book, “Hip Hop Can Save America! Inspiration for the Nation from a Culture of Innovation” available for holiday gifting 😁
📰 HIP HOP NEWS THAT ISN’T ABOUT DUMB SHIT
🕊️ Marcyliena Morgan, Founder of Harvard’s Hip-Hop Archive, Dies at 75
🎶 Local Dad & Daughter Hip Hop Duo are GRAMMY nominated
🎨 ATL StyleWriters Jam Honors Atlanta’s Graffiti Pioneers and Hip-Hop Legacy
📰 Inside Vibe’s merger with Rolling Stone
🏆 Jeezy Sets Guinness World Record for Largest…
📖 Review of “Words for My Comrades: A Political History of Tupac Shakur”
🎶 Inside Hip Hop producer the Alchemist’s most monumental year
🗣️ Here’s how Filipinos are telling their stories through hip-hop
⚖️ Fugees rapper Pras Michel sentenced to 14 years in prison
🦃 Mistah F.A.B. hosting 21st Annual Turkey Giveaway in Oakland
💎 Hip-hop godfathers the Last Poets: ‘In times of great chaos, there’s opportunity’
🐔 This Toronto hip-hop artist is teaming up with a chicken chain to raise funds for hurricane relief
🎧 Celebrating San Diego Hip Hop History
Friends, this newsletter is part of my bigger mission: showing how Hip Hop strengthens education, community, public health, creativity, civics, and more. If you want to fuel this work, becoming a paid subscriber is one of the easiest ways to do it. 🙏
INTERVIEW: “THE GRAPHIC HISTORY OF HIP HOP”
📅 UPCOMING HIP HOP CONFERENCES AND DOPE INTERDISCIPLINARY EVENTS
If you have an event that should go here, please reply to this message and let me know, I’ll be happy to include it in upcoming newsletters.
* February (Date TBD): Kalamazoo College
“Hip Hop Can Save America!”
Book talk and community discussions/performances
February 21, 2026: UMass Amherst College of Education
Black AF (Artistic Freedom) Conference
TV OFF: Hip-Hop as the Revolution for Critical Conversations and Resistance to Conform
March 4, 2026: Berklee College of Music
Fifth Annual International Hip-Hop Symposium
March 18-21: Groningen (The Netherlands)
European Hip Hop Studies Conference
“Things Done Changed”: Hip Hop Futures for a World on Fire
November 13-15, 2026: Howard University
4th Annual Hip Hop Studies Conference (Recap of 2025 conference)
* means I’ll be presenting …
📺: WATCH MY TEDx TALK!
📖: READ MY BOOK!
🎧: LISTEN TO THE HHCSA! PODCAST
📺: WATCH THE HHCSA! YOUTUBE CHANNEL
💬: JOIN THE HHCSA! DISCORD CHANNEL!
🙏: Support this work by becoming a paid subscriber below or on Patreon if you prefer.
Talk more soon.
~Manny
💎 CLOSING JEWEL
(H/T: Andrew Wang)