Hip Hop Comes to Ken Cen

Ears pricked up at the press preview for the Kennedy Center’s 2015-2016 season this morning when the stodgy-but-stirring performing arts palace announced its first artistic director of hip-hop culture. Q-Tip, 45, a former member of A Tribe Called Quest, was born Jonathan Davis in Harlem. He grew up in St. Albans, a middle-class neighborhood in Queens (the Q in Q-Tip stands for Queens) that was home to Basie, Miles and Coltrane and a couple guys who played baseball in one of the other boroughs, Roy Campanella and Jackie Robinson. When he converted to Islam, he changed his name to Kamaal Ibn John Fareed.

Tip (as his friends call him) has been nominated for a Grammy Award six times, winning Best Dance Recording in 2006 for “Galvanize,” with the Chemical Brothers. What’s the difference between hip-hop and rap? Rap is considered one element in hip-hop, a culture that embraces music, art, dance and fashion. But we’ll leave it to Tip to drop science on our ass starting this summer. Welcome to D.C.!