Hip hop pioneer DJ Afrika Bambaataa (bam-BAH'-tah) has been appointed to a three-year term as a visiting scholar at Cornell University.

The appointment announced Tuesday was made by Cornell University Library's Hip Hop Collection in conjunction with the Ivy League school's music department.

Bambaataa will visit Cornell's upstate New York campus several days each year to talk to classes, meet with student and community groups, and perform the music he helped create and expand. His first visit will be in November.

Cornell officials say the university's library contains the largest national archive on hip hop culture, documenting its birth and growth by preserving thousands of recordings, fliers, photographs and other artifacts.