Young Guru 

Christopher "Play" Martin

Jabari Payne

DJ Mars

DJ Trauma

DJ Wildchild

Lance Williams

DJ Heat

Priest Da Nomad

DJ Lady B

Respect the Technique: Last Night a DJ Saved my Life

Hip-Hop Studies at Howard University

The 4th Annual Hip Hop Studies Conference will center the DJ as a foundational force in Hip Hop culture

Howard University

<h3><a href="https://express.adobe.com/publishedV2/urn:aaid:sc:US:1121071b-6643-505e-a56e-ab0f6b1193eb?sdid=C4SZ2FYJ&amp;category=search&amp;pageId=2dadc363-a578-402b-8d27-e4fcd112ef72" title="https://express.adobe.com/publishedV2/urn:aaid:sc:US:1121071b-6643-505e-a56e-ab0f6b1193eb?sdid=C4SZ2FYJ&amp;category=search&amp;pageId=2dadc363-a578-402b-8d27-e4fcd112ef72" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">The digital program is now online.</a></h3>

The conference is 3 days of panels, interactive workshops, performances, film screenings, and networking. Attendees connect across disciplines, share research and creative work, and engage with conversations shaping Hip Hop culture today. <h3>Conference Theme</h3>Respect the Technique: “Last Night a DJ Saved My Life”The conference highlights the artistry, innovation, and cultural impact of DJs and producers across generations and global contexts. From the origins of Hip Hop to the digital age, DJs and producers have shaped sound, community, and cultural movements in profound ways.

<h3>Conference Hotels:</h3>The two conference hotels offering special conference rates for November 13-15, 2026, will be<ul><li>Hotel Nell: $189 per night, plus taxes (411 New York Ave NE, Washington, DC)</li><li>Email Contact: nfreeman@hotelnelldc.com | Room Code: HOWARDHIPHOP26 | Contact Number: 202-990-4844</li><li>Suggested Subject Line: HOWARD HIP HOP STUDIES CONFERENCE ROOM BOOKING</li></ul>*Our Friday evening reception will be at Hotel Nell this year.

<h3>Hip-Hop Studies minor website: <a href="https://ids.howard.edu/hip-hop-studies" title="https://ids.howard.edu/hip-hop-studies" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">hiphop.howard.edu</a></h3>

<h3>Registration Fees</h3>The Hip Hop Studies Conference is an independent, community-driven event and is not sponsored by the university or supported by external funding. Each year, the conference is made possible through grassroots fundraising efforts and registration fees.Your registration has allowed us to provide conference bags, badges, and programs; support sound and lighting for performances; contribute to travel costs for keynote speakers; and include breakfast and lunch as part of your registration.All conference organizers volunteer their time and labor, and 100% of registration revenue is reinvested into hosting and sustaining the conference each year.By registering, you are not only attending—you are actively helping to build and sustain this important space for Hip Hop scholarship, creativity, and community.

Friday

Opening Reception

Saturday

Registration and Breakfast

DJ Trauma and DJ Mars join us for a plenary conversation exploring the the role of the DJ in Hip Hop culture. With more than three decades of experience, DJ Mars has brought his sound to international tours, festivals, and major events, including Usher’s Past Present Future World Tour and Monica’s Verzuz appearance. DJ Trauma, Dave Chappelle’s longtime official tour DJ, has performed in more than 40 countries and worked with artists including Ciara, Monica, and Keri Hilson. Together, they will reflect on the craft of DJing and the relationships that sustain a career.

Opening Plenary: A Conversation with DJ Trauma and DJ Mars

For more than fifty years, women DJs have shaped Hip Hop culture while remaining underrepresented in scholarship & mainstream histories. This panel re-centers their voices, experiences, & impact through research, oral history, archival materials, media analysis, & firsthand testimony. The discussion introduces the “Queen J”: a pioneering woman DJ whose technical mastery, innovation, cultural
leadership, and community influence helped create, sustain, and transform Hip Hop. Co-presented by Bowie State University professor, Hip Hop scholar, & filmmaker Tewodross Melchishua Williams and D'bora “Baby D” Meyers, an original member of the Mercedes Ladies—the first all-female DJ and MC collective in Hip Hop—the panel examines women’s contributions through DJing, turntablism, performance, entrepreneurship, and community leadership.

The Mercedes Ladies, Rewriting Hip-Hop History Through the Voices of Women DJs

Moderator: Junious Whitaker - Howard University

Living Archives: Mixtapes, Memory & Cultural Preservation

This workshop examines what it means to “respect the technique” in DJing while expanding access to Hip Hop culture. Challenging the idea that inclusion lowers standards, it demonstrates how instruction that honors different learning styles can strengthen timing, transitions, and connection to the music. Drawing on Spin the Spectrum, the first U.S. DJ program designed specifically for autistic and neurodivergent
people, the session introduces a relationship-based, student-led teaching approach grounded in respect for both learners and the culture. Participants will explore how adapting instruction for sensory needs, communication differences, and motor-planning challenges can sharpen beatmatching, phrasing, and track selection. Through live demonstrations, attendees will learn ways to teach blending and transitions without relying on verbal instruction, structure environments that support focus and regulation, and introduce new DJs to the culture without lowering expectations. 

Workshop: AI, Assistive Tech, and the Future of Inclusive DJing

Pull up and celebrate hip-hop's history, creativity, and global reach on the big screen: Cam Be and Neak's soulful exploration of who gets to define Blackness through music and film; Jeffrey Roe's mini-doc following DJ Tony Touch as he builds bridges across hip-hop, reggaeton, and house; and our headliner, Return of the Wax, a feature-length love letter to vinyl and its deep groove in Black culture by filmmaker Jabari Payne and executive produced by Christopher "Play" Martin.

Film Showcase

This is a panel discussion where we will begin by looking at the first DJ battle that took place at Howard University in 1992 at the Annual Hip-Hop Conference sponsored by The Cultural Initiative, Inc through lens of filmmaker and historian, Lance Williams. Then we will talk about the evolution of the art of DJing and its impact on our culture and community through the lived professional and personal experiences of Howard University's own DJ Wildchild and DJ Young Guru.
This session is co-sponsored by the Chadwick A. Boseman College of Fine Arts and the Hip-Hop Studies Minor.

The DJ as a Curator of Culture & Creator of Community

Conference Performance Showcase

Discover how DJs connect communities, carry cultural messages, & introduce new sounds across borders in two panels & a workshop.

***Hip Hop Beyond Borders explores African rap, algorithms, and governance; South African DJ oral histories from apartheid to streaming; Hip Hop as a tool for community storytelling; and the internet’s role in shaping Iranian Hip Hop.

***Moving the Message: Platforms, Media & Cultural Storytelling examines DJs as journalists, cultural gatekeepers, & storytellers. Presentations connect music & message with cinema, Black church worship, the legacy of King Sun and D-Moet, and fifty years of fashion behind the turntables.

***From Origin to the Unknown, facilitated by Jace of The Residency, traces DJing’s history & the selectors who brought regional sounds to new audiences. Two DJs guide attendees through regional scenes, arriving in the Pacific Northwest to spotlight artists with national, regional, and global reach. The workshop culminates in a live mixtape.

Concurrent Panels & Workshops

Explore DJing as a source of knowledge, a model for navigating change, * a means for student connection in one panel and two workshops.

***Teaching the Technique: Pedagogy, Listening & Knowledge, examines DJs as educators and archivists. Speakers explore listening, cultural memory, classroom practice, identity, belonging, resistance, and curation for social change.

***Last Night a DJ Saved My Life. Tomorrow, DJ Thinking Might Save Our Future, led by Manny Faces, turns digging, listening, reading the room, and remixing into strategies for collaboration and adaptation. Guided exercises help participants apply DJ thinking to their work and communities.

***The School Cypher Summit, led by Kareem McQuilkin, uses La Reezy’s lyrics and a cypher challenge to introduce Transformative Social and Emotional Learning. Educators explore identity, agency, belonging, problem-solving, and curiosity, leaving with tools to amplify student voice and build supportive school communities.

Sunday

Opening Plenary

Explore Hip Hop’s creative future, community power, and classroom possibilities in 2 panels & 1 workshop.

***Hip Hop’s Next Remix: AI, Art & Technology examines race and technology, graffiti and DJing’s analog roots, social media remix culture, Lupe Fiasco’s TextFX AI experiment, and connections between lyricism and protein design.

***Last Night a Deejay Saved My Life, Again explores how DJs sustain Black communities through crisis & uncertainty. From Club Quarantine and Pass the Mic to protests and grassroots gatherings, panelists consider music for healing, resistance, advocacy, cultural preservation, and belonging.

***GO SHE-J!: Amplifying Girls’ Voices Class Playlist Curation, led by LaToya Parker, shows educators how collaborative playlists can strengthen student voice, critical literacy, and social-emotional learning. Through song selection, lyric analysis, sequencing, and reflection, participants begin planning lessons that connect Hip Hop, girls’ empowerment, and ELA skills.

Explore Hip Hop’s power to nurture care, challenge exclusion, & preserve knowledge in 2 panels & 1 workshop.

***More Than Music: Hip Hop, Healing & Survival examines knowledge as a survival resource, DJ Premier’s eco-spirituality, memory and care, D-Nice’s Club Quarantine, and DJing as mindfulness in Hip Hop therapy.

***Claiming Space: Black Women, Queer DJs & Hip Hop explores race and masculinity in the Kendrick–Drake beef, Black women’s self-definition, DJing as Black feminist worldmaking, Black queer DJs’ resistance, and Noname and Little Simz’s curatorial decolonization.

***From Turntables to Technology, led by software engineer Tatiana Johnson, uses SpinConnect to explore ethical tools for archiving, artist discovery, and community connection. Participants consider how to protect mixtapes, stories, techniques, and regional sounds, leaving with design principles for technology that keeps Hip Hop’s cultural legacy in the hands of the communities that created it.

Lunch

Explore the DJ’s foundational role in Hip Hop and turn technique into knowledge through 1 panel & 2 hands-on workshops.

***Respect the DJ: Hip Hop’s Roots, Craft & Legacy examines problem-solving, breakbeats and healing, the DJ’s cultural authority, scratching’s declining presence in rap, Atlanta bass, and algorithms as gatekeepers.

***Sankofa Sounds, led by Adofo Ka-Re, connects breaks, sampling, movement, & memory through listening & a live DJ demonstration. Hear soul, jazz, funk, and gospel transformed, then begin curating a short set using selection, sequencing, and transitions to create energy and tell a story.

***The Architect’s Blueprint, facilitated by Justis Lopez, Pinqy Ring, and Martha Diaz, introduces DJ competencies in the National Hip-Hop Education Guidelines Index. Explore mixing, sampling, turntablism, and digital workflows as classroom tools, contribute feedback, and leave with practical teaching strategies and access to the DJ framework. No DJ experience required.

Discover how DJs keep Black musical history alive & create soundscapes for learning, reflection, & growth in 2 workshops.

***Time Traveling Through Turntables: How DJs Keep Black Music Alive Through Sampling, led by Imani J. Wallace, explores sampling as remembrance and citation. Through musical analysis and live listening, trace connections between earlier genres and contemporary Hip Hop. Spoken-word artists Lyrical Faith and Storyteller Gordon connect DJ practices to poetry through discussion, archival examples, and performance, revealing how remixing preserves stories while creating new possibilities.

***From Rocking Parties to Empowerment: DJs, Digital Technology & Mixtapes, led by Raphael Travis, explores mixtapes as tools for education, therapy, and community change. Demonstrations with DJ and MIDI controllers, digital audio workstation, and mixtape examples introduce an empowerment framework. Leave with strategies for curating meaningful sonic journeys for yourself and others.

Respect the Technique: Last Night a DJ Saved my Life

The digital program is now online.

Lineup

Young Guru

Christopher "Play" Martin

Jabari Payne

DJ Mars

DJ Trauma

DJ Wildchild

Good to know

Location

Howard University

How do you want to get there?

Agenda

Opening Reception

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Respect the Technique: Last Night a DJ Saved my Life

The digital program is now online.

Lineup

Young Guru

Christopher "Play" Martin

Jabari Payne

DJ Mars

DJ Trauma

DJ Wildchild

Good to know

Location

Howard University

How do you want to get there?

Agenda

Opening Reception

More events from Hip-Hop Studies at Howard University

Discover more events from Hip-Hop Studies at Howard University, from Music to other experiences you might love.

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