 A few virtual notes, our speakers for today will proceed in this following order. First, Elizabeth City State University's esteemed Chancellor, Dr. Keri G. Dixon, who will provide opening remarks. Chancellor Dixon will be followed by Dr. Farah J Ward, who serves as Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs here at ECSU. Provost Ward will then introduce the university's new artists and residents who will provide remarks. At the conclusion, we will answer any questions that are posted in the Q&A located at the bottom of your screen. All attendees are in listen only mode. If you have any follow-up questions, once the press conference concludes, please provide them to the email address which I will note in the chat. Again, thank you for being with us. At this time, I'd like to introduce Dr. Keri G. Dixon, the 12th Chief Executive Officer and 7th Chancellor of Elizabeth City State University. Chancellor Dixon. Thank you, Yana. Good afternoon. I am Keri Dixon, and I have the honor of serving as Chancellor of Elizabeth City State University. Today is an exciting day in the life of our university. Over the past several years, we have created several innovative programs and initiatives for our campus community. As one of North Carolina's premier institutions, we offer a high quality, affordable education, and provide enriching academic and co-curricular activities for our students. Since launching our strategic plan title Forging Our Future in 2020 and outlining six goals that serve as the blueprint for ECSU success over the next five years, we have been actively working towards achieving each of our institutional objectives. Go one, which is academic excellence, means ECSU will provide first class academic programs steeped in experiential learning that fully utilize our strengths as a university and enhance our region. It also means that we will promote an academic environment that is centered on student success and fosters faculty development in the areas of teaching, research, and service. This afternoon's announcement is an outgrowth of these objectives. We are constantly seeking opportunities for our students to interact with and learn alongside celebrated experts in diverse fields of study. This fuels innovation and broadens our students ability to discover and nurture their passions. From the arts to the sciences, North Carolina is rich with distinguished experts who embody the work and range of study that are praised regionally, nationally, and internationally. We often invite these scholars to join us as part of our community connections performance and lecture series, or offer visiting lecturer activities for them to take advantage of. These celebrated professionals grace stages and lead industries that our students aspire to be a part of upon completing their education. As a higher education institution. We are the resource right here in northeastern North Carolina. It is equally important for us to offer enriching opportunities that we can stand to members of the Elizabeth City and surrounding communities, which in turn fosters community engagement. Our new partnership with the award winning artists acclaimed producer noted scholar and successful business owner. We are here to announce today will open up new doors of possibilities for our students in areas including music, history and business. I am equally thrilled of a commonality. I share with our new artists in residence, as we hail from the same hometown, Winston Salem, North Carolina. At this time, I invite Dr. Farrah Ward, Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs at ECSU to formally introduce the newest member of our Viking faculty, Dr. Ward. Thank you so much, Chancellor Dixon. Good afternoon. I am Dr. Farrah Ward and I have the honor of serving as Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs at Elizabeth City State University. Today's announcement celebrates the addition of the newest member to ECSU's academic community. We sought out a creative, accomplished and inspirational artists to join our faculty and offer our students transformational learning opportunities. Our university has distinguished programs in both music and history and this appointment complements the great work already underway in these academic disciplines. The accolades, portfolio and discography of our new artists and residents are extensive and includes more than two decades of incredible work. At this time, it is my extreme honor and excitement to introduce Mr. Patrick Ninth Wonder, doubted as Elizabeth City State University's artists and resident for the 22-23 academic year. For the next two semesters, he will teach two classes, serve as a consultant to two campus communities and develop new initiatives that engage our students in experiential learning. Ninth Wonder has served in academia as a lecturer and artist and resident at a number of universities, including Harvard University, Duke University, Long Island University, North Carolina Central University and the University of Virginia. As a North Carolina native, he began his career as the main producer for the group Little Brother. He gained recognition and critical acclaim for his production of their debut 2003 release titled The Listening. A Grammy award-winning producer, he has worked with award-winning artists in the hip hop and R&B genres for a wide range of talent, including Kendrick Lamar, Mary J. Blige, Jay-Z, Destiny's Child, Wale, Merz, Drake, Buckshot, Chris Brown, Rhapsody, Jill Scott and Ludacris. In 2010, he started his independent label Jamla Records in Raleigh, which has fostered the careers of Rhapsody, a Grammy-nominated rapper who hails from Snow Hill, North Carolina, and Durham artists in North Carolina Central University graduates King Draft and Swink. In 2022, 9th was again nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Progressive R&B Album, noting a collaboration with Robert Glasper, Terrence Martin and Kamaze Washington. He was selected to join the Executive Committee for Hip Hop and Rap at the National Museum of African American History and Culture at the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C., where he has an exhibit on the musical crossroads floor. In October 2019, he was inducted into the North Carolina Music Hall of Fame. We look forward to our partnership with 9th Wonder, which will also include engagement with ECSU's Campus Engagement and Student Activities Board and hosting a Hip Hop Symposium. It is my distinct pleasure to formally welcome 9th Wonder to the Viking family, and at this time I invite him, ECSU's artists and residents, 9th Wonder to give remarks. Thank you very much, everybody. This is an honor and a pleasure, especially to be able to be called upon a homegirl from my hometown. That is probably one of the biggest things for me to let all the students know you never know what life can lead you as far as where your life may take you and where other people you grew up with may be. And we're here now 30 years after leaving from Salem, North Carolina here at Elizabeth City State. It's such an important thing for me to be able to give back to my own. It is important for our children to know where we come from, and Hip Hop is a big way to teach that. Because Hip Hop is a gateway to jazz, which is a gateway to American music, which is a gateway to how we got here 400 years ago. And so I'm excited to be here. I'm ready to get started. I had a chance to talk to students beforehand last year, and I know a lot of those students wanted that conversation to continue. So now it will all year long. So I'm here. Plenty of students want to ask me questions. They'll see me on campus. I won't be, I'm not the type to have security or anything like that. You know, I'm an HBCU kid just like you guys. So thank you so much y'all for for let me do this and, and like I said, it's always important for me to give back to my own so I'm going to continue to do that. And I'm ready for homecoming. Thank you guys. Appreciate it. Thank you so much. Ninth, we are thrilled to have you. Chancellor Dixon, Provost Ward, if you want to have any additional comments, I am looking in the chat. And I do not see any specific questions. So if there is anything you want to add, please do do so at this time and I'll try and pin you to the screen. Chancellor or Provost. I thought the Chancellor was saying, going to say something. So that's why I think she's trying, but why she's trying. I will say that, you know, we are extremely happy that ninth will be joining us for this year. One, he will be teaching a general education course. And so that's one of the things when we talked about, we wanted to make sure that he would be teaching a course that any student would be able to register for. And so right now, he will be teaching African Americans and music. The course is not on the course is on the schedule, but it does not have his name yet because we wanted to make sure we announced him, but students will be able to register for that course starting tomorrow. So music to 12 is the course and we are just excited for all the things they will do. I think the Chancellor's volume is working. So I think you can speak now. Can you hear me. Yes. Okay, great, great. I am absolutely excited to have nice wonder on our campus and he was he was very nice to me. When he talked about how we've known each other for, I know, at least 30 years or more. And, you know, it's just amazing to have been able to watch his career and the success that he has had and the, you know, the nationals and beyond, you know, are even abroad. People know him and I'm just excited that he answered our call and that he is excited about coming to Elizabeth City State University. And, you know, I told him when he called I said, you know, God always answers prayers. And I say that because just at Viking Fist. I had four students come up to me at Viking Fist, and they said Chancellor, it will be nice if you could bring nice wonder back to campus. And I said, you know, let me see what what we can work on. I said, you know, he's a busy man, he's always traveling, and people always want his time but let me see what we can work on. And so when he called, I was so excited I called the provost I said you know what, God will work it out. And so I was excited to have to take his call and he and I talked in the provost talked with him and we talked about our vision for his impact, positive impact he will make on our campus as an artist and residents and also the opportunities that our students everything that they will learn from him and learn from people in his network and and who he's connected to. It just opens doors. And so I'm excited that the students asked for this. We were able to bring nice wonder to ECSU for this academic year. And I just know that this is going to be exciting and as he said, he's ready for homecoming I am too. And you know we have a new football coach we have our football team ready. We have the excitement behind coach Hilliard and our volleyball team with coach Brooks. This season and so we're excited about the direction of Elizabeth City State University and having people on the level of nice wonder wanting to come and be a part of our faculty and our Viking family just really helps us elevate everything that we are doing here at ECSU because I always say, excellence without excuse. We are doing what is needed to make sure that our students have a wonderful experience and the quality of faculty that we have here we are grateful for our faculty our staff, and having nice wonder be a part of that is just something that just brings so much excitement to me so Pat, I am happy to reconnect with you and just don't don't tell all our childhood stories now. But we are just so excited to have him and so happy for all of your success knife wonder and I know our students are going to be very excited and grateful to learn from you to be exposed to the music industry as you have been as a successful producer and just you know just opening those doors and making it come become a reality for the goals that our students have so thank you again Pat, I'm excited about it and we look forward to seeing you this fall. Thank you. Thank you. I appreciate that and I'll make sure I keep our childhood stories to ourselves. For sure but again thank you to everybody involved for bringing me down. I know at the NC State Elizabeth City game, myself and Dr. Ward walked down the hall where she said look now, we're going to make this happen. Let's make it happen. You remember that? Make this happen. And I'm glad it did. I'm glad I like again. I had the best time when I came down last time and talking to students and all the students were so ready to receive the information. That's the biggest thing for me just ready to receive information and they all love music, which is, which is incredible too. So I'm ready to get started. Yes, it is what it is ready to get started. I'm glad. There are no other questions. Chancellor, are there any closing remarks that you want to make? Today is an exciting day in the life of our university. Can you hear me? Okay, great. Something's going on with my computer. Now we can't hear you Chancellor. Okay, so I just want to say thank you for those who have joined us. It cut off again Chancellor. I think she's having trouble with her. Oh yeah, now. Thank you again. Technology is our best friend, right? But thank you again for joining us for this very important and exciting announcement and we are again very excited to have Knife Wonder join us for the academic. I think it cut out again. I think she's excited to have Knife Wonder join us for this academic year. Can you hear me now? Yeah. I see a statement in the chat that I think Knife can respond to. Someone said, now you have to be a Viking fan instead of the Duke fan. What's your response to? Not love, not love. I love my people. I love my people. One of the things for certain, they share the color blue. That's great. Yes, yes. I mean, that's not going to be the thing that's going to make me torn. You know, my daughter is going to be playing point guard, going to be an incoming freshman point guard for Winston-Salem State next year. So I don't know what I'm going to do once the state comes to town at that particular point, but as far as the Duke part, you know, it's funny because I will discuss, you know, I will discuss the issues that the Duke family has with the funding of HBCUs across North Carolina. So we'll talk about that. That's great. That's great. Yeah, and we played Winston-Salem State home this year. So you just have to get a special shirt made where you have the Vikings and Ram. Our speakers for today will first be in the following order. First, Elizabeth City State University. Well, thank you all so much for joining us today. And this video will be on the ECSU YouTube page so you can go back and watch it. But I hope everyone has a great day and welcome again, Ninth Wonder, to Elizabeth City State University, Viking Pride. Thank you. Recording stopped. I had to get a chance to meet him before and we talked about a sample. He told me to start a sample because a lot of people told me not a sample because about the clearance and all that, but he was like, no, I'll just go for it and make that good music. That's all I'm trying to do. He's from North Carolina, just like me. He was in a band just like me and his focus was music. And I'm a rapper, so I just feel like he can push me. I can just be like him. Like in details, what steps did you take to ease on into the game? Right now I'm in the process of profiting my craft, you know, learning about music, learning how to lay down my music, learning my sound, learning how to upload my music, copyrights, all of that good stuff. I'm in the building process right now, but for some reason I feel like I'm ready to actually get out there. So really I would ask him, how did he get his foot in the game? How did he get out there? How did he start networking and building with these other great mainstream artists? How did you get out there on the charts, the billboards, your name, everybody sitting and stuff like that? Honestly, how did you get out there? That's what I ask. Some people outside of the people of color, and we're speaking about brown and black people. You know, where your African descent, Latino descent, you know, some people feel like if you didn't come from a certain neighborhood, that you're not supposed to be there, you're not supposed to understand where hip-hop is. Hip-hop is one of those, it's probably the one music art form, new music art form that combines not only the aspect of culture, but color. Former faculty member of JZ's Rock Nation School of Music, Duke University, North Carolina Central, and Harvard University. Grammy award-winning super producer, Knife Wonder, will join the Academy at Elizabeth City State University in fall 2022 as the first-ever artist in residence. In a united effort to develop and enhance the creative and technical skills of ECSU students, Knife Wonder brings years of knowledge to the classroom from real-world hands-on experiences from lecturing at universities, serving as a DJ on main stage, and mixing unforgettable sounds behind the scenes from musical legends from across the world. ECSU is excited to continue to see the talent unfold under the artistry of Knife Wonder. Having worked with Drake, Big Boy of Outcasts, Beyonce, Ludacris, David Banner, Kendrick Lamar, and Mary J. Blige, we look forward to Knife Wonder joining the ECSU family. For more information, visit www.ecsu.edu and continue to follow us on all of our social media platforms. Viking Pride!