Cornel West

Cornel West stands among the leading Black American thinkers and academics spanning the close of the twentieth century into the new millennium. He ventured into popular music through spoken-word releases that conveyed his intense radicalism while articulating his views on race and faith. Born in 1953 in Tulsa, Oklahoma, he participated directly in Civil Rights efforts and stood at the forefront of Black student activism during the 1970s and 1980s, both while studying and later while teaching. Throughout his scholarly path he earned degrees and held faculty positions at Yale, Princeton, and Harvard, producing numerous essays and volumes, among them the best-seller Race Matters. From 1994 to 2002 at Harvard he earned widespread student admiration for his distinctive teaching style, offering some of the institution’s most attended classes. That same nonconformity surfaced in his debut spoken-word album, Sketches of My Culture (2001). Heavily centered on the spoken voice, the project drew on an extensive range of Black and urban sounds, from gospel through hip-hop, to transmit his perspectives. University president Lawrence Summers voiced objections to the recording, sparking a public dispute concerning West’s instructional approach and competence. The conflict led him to resume his post at Princeton in 2002 as a faculty member in the African-American Studies program. Five years afterward he issued a follow-up album, Never Forget: A Journey of Revelations, which evoked the longstanding spirit of defiance embedded in hip-hop and youth culture. André 3000, Prince, Gerald LeVert, KRS-One, Dave Hollister, and Killer Mike contributed guest appearances alongside numerous other rap and R&B performers.