Harvard University's W.E.B. Du Bois Institute and the Hip-Hop Archive announced that the prestigious school will launch the "Nasir Jones Hip-Hop Fellowship," according to a press release.

Nasir Jones, better known by his stage name "Nas," said he was honored to be connected to the new fellowship. The program was designed to fund scholars and artists who demonstrate exceptional scholarship and creative ability as it relates to hip-hop music.

"I've truly been blessed to have achieved so much through art in my short life thus far," Nas said in a statement provided by the Island Def Jam Music Group. "But I am immensely over-the-top excited about the Nasir Jones Hip-Hop Fellowship at Harvard."

Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr., Director of the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research, said Nas' affiliation would only be beneficial to the fellowship.

"Nas is a true visionary, and he consistently shows how boundaries can be pushed and expanded to further the cause of education and knowledge," Gates, Jr. said. "The work of the Du Bois Institute is enriched by the addition of the Nasir Jones Hip-Hop Fellowship."

Nas continued by praising the hard work that put the fellowship together.

"It is a true honor to have my name attached to so much hard work, alongside great names like Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and W.E.B. Du Bois and to such a prestigious and historical institution, and all in the name of the music I grew to be a part of," he said.

According to Island Def Jam's release, Harvard's Hip-Hop Archive has three objectives.

"To seek projects from scholars and artists that build on the rich and complex hip-hop tradition; to respect that tradition through historically grounded and contextualized critical insights; and most importantly, to represent one's creative and/or intellectually rigorous contribution to hip-hop and the discourse through personal and academic projects," the release said.

Nas released his debut album "Illmatic" in 1994 and his most recent one was 2012's "Life is Good." In his career he has become one of the genre's most influential and respected artists.