When Patrick Douthit was a student at North Carolina Central Univerisity in the 1990’s, he had dreams of becoming a high school history teacher. Instead, he became a hip-hop star. Douthit is known more popularly by his stage name, “9th Wonder”, and as a Grammy award-winning hip-hop producer and DJ he’s released close to a half dozen solo albums and done more than a dozen collaborations with artists ranging from the rapper Nas to the group Little Brother.

But the teaching bug wouldn’t let him go. After a chance encounter with Duke University professor Mark Anthony Neal, the two began co-teaching a class on the history of soul music in which 100 students were registered. More recently, Douthit was selected as a fellow at Harvard University’s Hip-Hop Archive, where next semester he’ll teach a course called “The Breaks” that charts the history of hip-hop dating back to the 1920’s and looks at the importance of New York City’s immigration patterns to the growth of the music worldwide.

“I live by the saying that ‘chance favors the well-prepared,’ ” Douthit tells me by phone when explaining his approach to teaching. “I just keep it at a level that’s like I’m going into a classroom with a bunch of students who don’t know as much about the culture as I do, and they want to learn.”

And, he adds, he’s no novelty act. He’s paid faculty. “I’ve had a working campus ID card for the past three years,” he laughs.

Douthit isn’t the only artist who’s been welcomed into the academy. In November, Cornell University announced that Afrika Bambaataa, a Bronx DJ who’s widely recognized as one of hip-hop’s founders, would begin lecturing at the school. At Columbia University’s Teacher’s College, Wu-Tang founder GZA is working with professor Chris Emdin on a program to teach math and science to children in Harlem. In 2011, rapper Bun B from the group UGK was hired as a lecturer in Rice University’s Religious Studies department.

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