Cheryl L. Keyes is the author of Rap Music and Street Consciousness (University of Illinois Press), which received a CHOICE award for outstanding academic book titles. She has written numerous journal articles, essays, and reviews on hip-hop/rap and African American popular music. Amongst her most recent essay is “Long Live Hip-Hop: Hamilton and the Death (and Rebirth) of Hip-Hop” in the edited volume Dueling Grounds: Revolution and Revelation in the Musical Hamilton. Professor Keyes served on the Executive Committee for the Smithsonian Folkways Recordings and the National Museum of African American History and Culture’s project, Smithsonian Anthology of Hip-Hop and Rap, and “stewarded the selection of nine CDs consisting of 129 tracks and a 300-page book” along with additional writing for the Anthology. On other fronts, Dr. Keyes has been featured in public facing platforms as a critic and cultural consultant for the television mini-series documentary, Death Row Chronicles (BET) and for DreamWorks Animation’s film, Trolls World Tour (Universal Pictures), respectively.
Keyes’s scholarship has advanced into other areas including producing, writing, and directing a documentary (short) called Beyond Central Avenue: Contemporary Female Jazz Instrumentalists of Los Angeles. In addition, she has served as musical director for the “Lady Jazz: Blues in the Summertime” concert, commissioned by Instrumental Women Project™ for its Lady Jazz summer concert series held at the John Anson Ford Amphitheatre and created and produced the concert Swinging to a World of Strings, presented at UCLA’s Schoenberg Auditorium and supported by the David and Irmgard Dobrow Fund.
In the area of performance, Professor Keyes is a pianist, flutist, singer, and composer with a list of credits. Most noted are performances with the All-Girl All-Star Invitational Band under the direction of the legendary jazz flugelhornist Clark Terry, and a featured artist-composer on The Other Side of Eddie Bo with New Orleans rhythm and blues icon Eddie Bo. She has recorded with jazz clarinetist-educator Alvin Batiste in which Keyes performs keyboards on Batiste’s debut album, Musique D’Afrique Nouvelle Orleans. She is a recipient of numerous awards: NAACP Image Award in the category of “Outstanding World Music Album” for her debut CD, Let Me Take You There (Keycan Records); Global Music Award Silver Medal for “Outstanding Achievement” for her double-single CD Hollywood and Vine (Keycan Records); and the Indiana University’s Herman C. Hudson Alumni Award.