Weaving Together Art and Academia
How Brown University professor Malik Boykin interlinks music production with the academic fields of psychology and sociology
My eyes dart over notebook scribbles I made last night—the next question I plan on posing to Brown University professor Malik Boykin. Unsure if this little blurb I wrote will make any audible sense, I start my inquiry.
“Being a musician and a strong academic at the same time seems like two completely different things—but I love how you’ve tied them together. How do you think aspects in one vein—producing music—have helped you be more successful in another vein—your academic career?”
Malik pauses briefly, then replies.
“You know, that is such a phenomenal question. I think the answer to that could probably take up the whole time. So I’ll try and give you the succinct version.”
Almost instantly my body relaxes, muscles easing back into my office chair. This guy has got some wisdom to share. His calm tone, thoughtful acknowledgements, and articulate demeanor all work together, signaling to me that I’d better listen up—don’t want to miss even a second. It isn’t often that I stumble across someone who’s this collected and prepared to explain one of my favorite topics: how do art and science intersect?
Malik Boykin is an assistant professor in the Department of Cognitive, Linguistic and Psychological Sciences at Brown University. He has a doctorate in Social and Personality Psychology from UC Berkeley and a masters degree in Social-Organizational Psychology from Columbia University. His research focuses on intergroup relations, hierarchy, prejudice, mentorship, and racial identity.
Malik is also a well-respected musician and rapper who goes under the name Malik Starx. Earlier this year he released a new energizing single “Dancing for Freedom” on all music platforms.
I recently sat down with Malik for a conversation about his music, his academic career, his lab’s current and previous research objectives, and how he manages to keep a positive, ambitious mentality under such an intense workload. To put it plainly, my conversation with Malik was completely inspiring.
To listen to the first chunk of our discussion, where we talk about his origins in the field of psychology and how he weaves academia and art together, click the link above or use the embedded Spotify player included below.
Malik dives into many profound topics, prompting some extra thoughts of my own after the conclusion of our conversation. I have included those thoughts below.
I’ve long believed that art and science are far more intertwined than we think. In some sense, they feed off one another. Science uses the past to predict and educate our future. Art implements the results of that science to build the narrative of the present. They both give each other the questions that push each other forward. I once heard, “Good science is a gift you give the future.” I would augment the saying slightly, “Good science and rousing art is a gift you give the future.” And both of them need each other to be successful in that pursuit.
“In the early stages of our careers as academics, we’re basically mixtape rappers.”
— Malik Boykin during the Bedletter podcast
As Malik tells it, one of the most impactful classes he took as an undergrad at Howard University was a Social Psychology class from professor Jaiya John (who has since left university teaching and now publicly speaks, runs a podcast, and writes amazing poetry). Jaiya would open each class period by either reading a poem of his own, or by having the students perform poetry, music, or something artistic and personal. Anything went—so long as it related back to social psychology or the psychology of human interaction.
This is a practice that Malik now uses in his classroom, crediting professor Jaiya John for sparking the match of Malik’s desire to pursue social psychology.
I can’t help but be envious of this type of classroom. As I stated to Malik, that scenario sounded like my type of setting, being a lover of poetry myself. The particular avenue of psychology that interests me most isn’t necessarily the data, the research, or the therapy. It’s something that I have struggled to put my finger on for years. Through my conversations with Malik, I think I uncovered a piece of it—the psychology of art.
As our discussion progressed, Malik went on to explain the weaving of these two aspects in his own life. Specifically, I was interested in how his experience working in the music industry had impacted his success in academia. What parts of the two were similar, what skills was he able to translate between fields? He began by divulging the environment of collaboration.
Collaborative papers and in-depth research articles are crucial in psychology—and science all together. It isn’t often that you will find a widely accepted or prized research document that only has one author. Typically, several scientists come together to work on different sections, checking each other’s writing, peer-reviewing the hypothesis, the results, the original research goals—it’s one massive group project. We might have hated these in high school (or loved them if you were the person who didn’t do anything), but in the scientific world, multiple sets of eyes are everything. It’s easy to report biased research if you’re the only one recording it. This isn’t something that scientists take lightly, either. It is their methodical responsibility to ensure a certain level of intellectual and practical purity exists within their research methods.
Malik makes a wonderful comparison, drawing this process in similarity to the collaboration music artists make with each other. In the combining of these two fields, he bluntly states:
“I don’t want to bore people. I don’t want to bore people when I’m giving talks. I want to make sure that there’s something unique about the way I present the information, something unique about how I show up—that brings together some entertainment value, brings together some added audio-visual experience.”
— Malik Boykin during the Bedletter podcast
Malik takes this fusion one step further, explaining how his previous research has been tied to the themes from Pubic Enemy’s Fear of a Black Planet album and album cover. He states that the 1990 hit-record, and art associated, were filled with poignant metaphors that illustrated his research. In the past, there have even been times when students have approached Malik and indicated how much they love that album, seeing how it maps onto the research Malik was performing. Or, inversely, how they appreciated his research, which spurred them into discovering the music.
Having never listened to Public Enemy, I was personally an example of the later scenario. This connection between music and science is beautiful and holistic. Almost as if puzzle-piecing these parts together finally helps complete the picture. Sociological and psychological research explores so much about the human condition, how we think, what we do, what habits we have, our tendencies, our bias, our choices, our group leanings—but there always seems to be one massive element missing: real world implementation. What is real world implementation than the manifestation of the art we produce? The songs we play and sing, the poems we write, the stories we tell, the pictures we take and paint—in a way, that is science played out in real-time.
“Art tracks society—it always has.”
— Malik Boykin during the Bedletter podcast
It’s easy to see art as completely separate from academia. I want to note as well that “art” doesn’t necessarily just mean music production, painting, or poem writing. It doesn’t only follow the veins of what one might think of when the word “art” is used. There are many forms—one common avenue we all participate in almost every day is story telling. Cultural trends often dictate the stories we tell each other, the way we tell those stories, even the jargon we use throughout the telling. Everyone is somewhat of a participant in the tracking of society. That tracking isn’t all that far from the research social scientists conduct.
As Malik continues to deepen his music industry metaphor, detailing how the artistic elements of his life have influenced the academic, he makes a head-on comparison. He explains how often times, creating a research paper that gets cited frequently is akin to the creation of a hit-record. Both function as “a piece of media that gets traction and gets people talking.” He rhetorically asks how that is any different from what Jay-Z or Nas are trying to accomplish.
As a deep obsessor of metaphor, at this point I feel like Malik has reached some kind of zen-apex of artistic and academic linking. Not just in talk, not just in what he says—but truly in how he thinks, how he views the world around him. It would be one thing to say these are connected topics, and then resume in keeping them unconsciously detached from each other. But Malik allows them to be cooked in the same pot. He lets one side generate the inspiration for the other.
Growing up, I can’t tell you how often I heard about how this person was left-brained, or that person was right-brained. At some point, it seems like we started saying that to ourselves more to convince than to convey. It became less about informing ourselves on our leanings, and more about living up the side we felt more aligned with. In essence, the side of our brain we liked more became our identity. I let this simple refrain drive my disdain for mathematics in high school. I’m not good at math, I’m good at English, good at ideas—I would tell myself, never thinking that maybe all that naysaying was half the reason I wasn’t that great at math. Who wants to put effort into something they aren’t good at?
Nowadays, the left-brain/right-brain theory has had it’s fair share of holes poked through it. Yet, we still fall prey to this style of reasoning. We still see a chasm between our art communities and our scientific ones, even if that belief is unconscious. Malik is living proof that these two avenues can be tread in union, with amazing results. As he so ultimately states:
“They [Jay-Z, artists] are the first-hand narratives of people that are navigating the kinds of struggles that the sociologists and social psychologists are really trying highlight.”
— Malik Boykin during the Bedletter podcast
A huge thank you to Malik Boykin for joining me on the Bedletter podcast. I sincerely appreciate him taking the time to sit down and have a thought-provoking conversation about topics we are both so passionate about.
If you are interested in following Malik on his social platforms, or would like to listen to his song “Dancing for Freedom”, follow the links below.
Malik’s Website
Malik’s Instagram
Malik’s Twitter
Malik’s Facebook
"Dancing for Freedom" on Soundcloud, Spotify, YouTube
Malik’s Research Lab