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As artist-in-residence of our American Music Research Center (AMRC) and the ��ƷSM����ӰƬ Center for African & African American Studies, Grammy-nominated hip-hop artist, dramatist and writer —stage name for Tauheed Rahim II—will showcase his artistry and wisdom through classes, workshops and a concert, Sept. 22-26.

AMRC Director Michael Uy notes that many College of Music students have been interested in a chance to engage with hip-hop. “When Marco Pavé reached out, I jumped at the opportunity because I knew of his participation as a cultural ambassador for the U.S. State Department,” says Uy. “He also came highly recommended as Georgetown University’s first hip-hop artist-in-residence.”

In preparation for classes that he’s guest teaching, Pavé asked students to listen to his Grammy-nominated work “Requiem for the Enslaved” which blends contemporary classical music with hip-hop.

“I'm excited about that genre-bending aspect, but also what the piece is about,” Pavé says.��“We're in a time of book banning and journalists are being ostracized. They're trying to rewrite history. So for me, as a Black American who's descended from enslaved people, it was always important to keep that story at the focal point of our country—not just as a blip of something that happened.”

He also hopes conversations around the piece will open up ideas about how to keep classical music moving forward—and what more genre-bending collaborations can look like.

In addition to engaging with students in classes, Pavé will participate in a Q&A with Donna Mejia—associate professor in the Department of Theatre & Dance and faculty fellow of the Renée Crown Wellness Institute; and discuss artistic activism in an event hosted by the Entrepreneurship Center for Music on Sept. 25.

Additionally, a featuring Pavé performing selections from his mixtapes and albums is free and open to the public—join us on Sept. 25 at 7:30 p.m., Imig Music Building, S102.

“My goal is for it to be really intimate, so you can dive into the words of what I'm saying—but also it's kind of a retrospective of my last 10 years as an artist,” he says. “People are definitely not used to seeing hip-hop concerts in a recital hall, so flipping that on its head will be fun.”

For Pavé, the most exciting aspects of the residency span from working with students to witnessing the football stadium during the Coach Prime era. He also resonates with the College of Music’s emphasis on wellness as part of our universal musician approach to achieving the college’s mission.

“To see that ��ƷSM����ӰƬ has this holistic energy around embracing the artist’s full self is really intriguing because that's how I think about my life and career,” he says. “Without wellness, I would not be the artist that I am today. So that's part of my excitement—wanting to be in that community, around other people who think in a similar holistic way.”