Pull up a chair, hon, or put it in the air, son – this is The Nasir Jones Hip-Hop Fellowship.

Harvard University have honoured the Queens rapper by setting up a new creative fund in his name. As Pitchfork report, the The Nasir Jones Hip-Hop Fellowship – established by The Hip-Hop Archive and W.E.B Du Bois Institute –  will reward artists and scholars “who demonstrate exceptional productive scholarship and exceptional creative ability in the arts in connection with hip-hop.”

According to a press release:

The mission of the Hip-Hop Archive is threefold: to seek projects from scholars and artists that build on the rich and complex hip-hop tradition; to respect that tradition through historically grounded and contextualized critical insights; and most importantly, to represent one’s creative and/or intellectually rigorous contribution to hip-hop and the discourse through personal and academic projects. Personal projects of fellows may include manuscript projects, performance pieces, album work, curriculum planning, primary archival research, and exhibition preparation, among others.

In the words of W.E.B Du Bois Institute director Prof. Henry Louis Gates Jr.: “Nas is a true visionary, and he consistently shows how boundaries can be pushed and expanded to further the cause of education and knowledge. The work of the Du Bois Institute is enriched by the addition of the Nasir Jones Hip-Hop Fellowship.” Members of the Fellowship will be selected by a committee of Harvard faculty members.

Congratulations to Nas (and here’s hoping he fits in better than Method Man and Redman did). Head here to watch rare footage of Nas performing in New York circa Illmatic.