The hip-hop icon has become the first rapper to receive the W.E.B. Du Bois Medal, Harvard’s highest honor in the field of African and African American Studies. Looking dapper in a suit, he joined his fellow honorees including U.S. Attorney General Eric H. Holder, Jr. at Harvard’s Sanders
Theatre on Wednesday.
During the ceremony, Nas posed with professors and students, and took the stage to share some empowering words.
“These are the things the kids need to see. The real things,” he said. “This is a light I want on me. I hope that I can be a great role model for those kids…you can be more than the typical image of rap.”