The Geoff Ward Collection

A large donation of hiphop-related periodicals and VHS cassette tapes comprises the Hiphop Archive’s extensive “Geoff Ward Collection.” Professor Geoff Ward’s contributions provide a valuable historical account of hiphop culture from a popular perspective. Additionally, they give the student or researcher a glimpse of the issues and concerns surrounding the hiphop community at the various periods of its development.

Some of the magazine titles in this Collection include mainstream publications such as Vibe, but also “underground” writings such as: 4080, F.E.D.S, and The Rap Pages. The Source magazine is the most comprehensive title in this collection with copies ranging from 1993 up until 2003. Feature articles from this time period deal with the contentious “East Coast/West Coast” discussion (interviews with Ice Cube and Suge Knight), the first appearance and subsequent rise of contemporary artists (Nas, Mos Def, and Eminem), and also the contributions of hiphop’s fallen stars (Notorious B.I.G, Tupac, and Big Pun).
 
Along with the periodicals there are thirty VHS tapes that feature popular music video programming, BET and CNN news clips, and educational programs that aired between 1993 and 2001.

This collection also contains numerous Rap City (BET) episodes from 1995 through 1996.  Each Rap City tape features one episode from a particular month.  These two to six hour videos are filled with hit songs from an era that is now considered “old school.”  These Rap City episodes are not just music videos; they have guest appearances, newsbreaks, and hiphop-related feature segments throughout the show. The Guests appearing on Rap City were usually there to promote a newly released album or an upcoming tour.  If you are lucky you might even catch a freestyle.

Twenty-five VHS tapes from the Geoff Ward Collection have been converted to DVD for viewing.  The remaining tapes are available in their original VHS format.
If you would like to view any of these materials, please contact the Hiphop Archive program coordinator at abcarter@fas.harvard.edu.

About Geoff Ward
Geoff Ward is from Los Angeles, CA and is currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Criminology, Law and Society at the University of California, Irvine. He studied sociology at Hampton University (BA, 1994) and the University of Michigan (PhD, 2001), and has been on the faculty of Northeastern University, a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Vera Institute of Justice, and a visiting scholar in African-American Studies at Columbia University.  His research and teaching focus on the racialization of criminal social control. In 2006, he received a W.E.B. DuBois Fellowship from the National Institute of Justice to study federal court workforce racial diversity and its relevance to racial disparity in federal sentencing. His research appears in various journals and anthologies, and he has recently completed a book on the rise and fall of Jim Crow juvenile justice entitled, The Black Child-Savers: Racial Democracy in American Juvenile Justice (University of Chicago Press). His juvenile justice research stems in part from long-standing interests in hip-hop culture, politics and community. He has helped organize numerous hip-hop initiatives, including “hip-hop studies collectives” at the University of Michigan and Northeastern University, the National Hip-hop Political Convention, and an experimental literacy workshop using hip-hop cultural artifacts, at McClymonds High School in Oakland, California. He remains passionate about preserving the material culture of hip-hop, and using these resources in the development and empowerment of youth and their communities.