Developing your craft as a hip-hop artist while excelling academically on campus is the focus of a scholarship sponsored by a pioneering female hip-hop artist.

Rapper MC Lyte and the University of Wisconsin’s First Wave Hip Hop and Urban Arts Learning Community will sponsor two $100,000 scholarships for the second straight year. Lyte was this year’s “I Am Hip Hop” award recipient at the Black Entertainment Television Hip Hop awards and was the first solo female recording artist to ever receive the award.

In an interview with The Badger Herald, Lyte said she has lent her celebrity to many organizations and fundraisers over the years but with the Hip Hop Sisters, Lyte’s non-profit that focuses on women’s empowerment in hip-hop, she finally got a chance to do something “near and dear” to her heart. Since the scholarship’s primary focus is on education, First Wave and Hip Hop Sisters found a “sweet spot” to collaborate, she said.

UW may be the only higher education institution that has a scholarship initiative based on hip-hop, Willie Ney, Office of Multicultural Arts Initiative executive director, said.

“It’s really interesting because UW wouldn’t be thought of as a center for hip-hop and education, but it’s become a really important one especially because of First Wave,” Ney said.

Scholarship recipients can pursue a major in any subject but also have the ability to further their talents as artists, Lyte said.

Recipients must attend various workshops and go through training for their art, Ney said.

The most important thing about the scholarship is that it shows young artists can also be young scholars, he said.

Ney said past recipients of the scholarship are all doing well academically, and First Wave is graduating more than 95 percent of its classes on average each year.

The artistry component of the scholarship also allows the recipients to excel, Lyte said.

“I can’t compare it to anything else except when you’re younger in elementary school and you’re able to excel in all other areas simply because you’re in music class,” Lyte said. “Of course, you find those other areas interesting, it is that creative nature that lives within that’s able to sprout out, that allows you to completely be yourself and be unique with that in all of your studies.”

First Wave has seen applications for its scholarships grow “exponentially” over the past few years, Ney said. A celebrity like Lyte brings also broad international attention to UW, he said.

Applicants must be high school seniors and need to meet the three “A”s to be eligible for the scholarship – academics, activism and artistry, Lyte said.

Applicants first must also meet academic standards and be admitted to UW to be eligible for the scholarship, Lyte said. They also need to show activism in their community or high school and display their artistry, what they do and where they are in the development of their craft, she said.

The scholarship is rooted in hip-hop, a wide genre that has also come to include poetry, spoken word and writing, Lyte said. Hip-hop has spread so far and so wide that other elements could help a person receive the scholarship, she added.

Lyte said she is open to expanding the program if the opportunity arises and she hopes to see all recipients live up to their highest potential, be happy and enjoy the journey along the way.