The very notion  of “every conceivable level” means that there’s a highest level of knowledge to be sought through hip-hop. Harvard, she explains, operates at that highest level and has the resources to give hip-hop its proper academic treatment. “Harvard has this commitment, and when you come in here,” she says, gesturing out the window of her office into the main room of the archive, “You see that this is a serious commitment.”

Harvard and hip-hop actually have a long history together, according to Morgan. The Source, one of the world’s most widely read hip-hop magazines, was started by two undergraduates at Harvard in 1988. It just seems incongruous; the images of hip-hop and the images of Harvard are so far removed from each other.

She hands me an old vinyl album. Along the side, B.M.O.C. is written in gold letters—“Big Men on Campus.” The two men on the cover look much like stereotypical Harvard men: blue-eyed, blond-haired, sharp features. But they are both sporting straight-brimmed baseball caps, and one has a bat slung over his shoulders. At first it seemed funny: They were trying too hard. They were caricatures. This was a novelty item.

But then everything Morgan had been saying about hip-hop’s unflinching inclusivity, its accessibility and the value it places on critique and experimentation—it all made sense. The pursuit of knowledge unified the seemingly incongruous hip-hop and Harvard.

“Lots of people say the Hiphop Archive doesn’t belong here,” she says. “If not at Harvard, then where?”

—Staff writer Matthew J. Watson can be reached at matthewwatson@college.harvard.edu.