The Hip-Hop and Cultural Studies Collective was conceived in the summer of 1999 by R. Scott Heath and Shawan M. Wade, graduate students at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor.  It was imagined initially as a central space, run by an organization of individuals to advance the study of hip-hop culture.  At a subsequent meeting the concept was actualized through the formation of the first Executive Committee consisting of the founders and three other charter members—Millery Polyné, Angie Colette Beatty, and Geoff K. Ward.  This group determined the mission of the Collective:  to collect and synthesize hip-hop scholarship and cultural production, to document the development of this social movement, to promote and diversify the study of hip hop in the academy and to provide community access to comprehensive and valuable information about hip hop.  The organization has established the following objectives:
 

• To document the stories/practices/experiences of hip-hop pioneers and participants in their own words, while they are still engaged in the culture and art.

• To create some degree of cooperation and dialogue between members of the academic and local communities in order to keep the study of hip hop grounded within the community from which it originally emerged.

• To empower members of the hip-hop community to define and articulate their culture and experiences in a scholarly manner that is accessible to academic and non-academic communities.

• To create a system of communication that facilitates the sharing of information in a dialogue amongst members of the international hip-hop community.

• To legitimize the study of hip-hop in the academy.

• To standardize hip-hop scholarship and create a physical place in which one can find abundant, comprehensive, and valuable information to be selected and organized at the conscientious discretion of the Collective.

• To develop and maintain a hip-hop website to be used for research purposes, scholarly exchange, critical submissions, dialogue and information.

• To create and publish a biannual or quarterly cultural studies journal that is devoted to hip-hop scholarship and culture (music, spoken word/poetry, fashion, technology, etc.)

• To organize and facilitate an annual hip-hop culture conference.

• To organize and facilitate a monthly brownbag series in which academics, activists and individuals in the community at large would discuss pertinent issues to hip-hop culture.

• To promote and sponsor speaker series, reading groups, individual research projects and other activities that would increase the awareness and understanding of hip-hop culture.