Flavor Flav Gifted His Enormous Clock to Harvard

• Flavor Flav paid a visit to Harvard University to volunteer, speak, and deliver a special gift.
• The Public Enemy icon spoke about his struggles with addiction.
• He donated one of his signature clock necklaces to the University's Hiphop Archive & Research Institute.

There is no word to do Flavor Flav justice quite like "icon." He's more than a hype man. More than a rapper. More than a reality star. In fact, if you asked an AI to create the physical embodiment of the transition in hip-hop from daring fashion and bragadocious rhymes to deep socio-political commentary, the result it would churn out would likely look a lot like Flavor Flav. He's an artist and persona who has both defined eras, and remains timeless (while always sporting an audacious timepiece around his neck).

But fame and artistry have their perils, and Flav (real name: William Jonathan Drayton Jr.) has not shied away from discussing those that befell him, especially his battle with addiction. It was with that message in mind that Flavor Flav recently visited the prestigious Harvard University.

In his visit to the Ivy League school, AS.com reports that Flav "volunteered at the Harvard Square Homeless Shelter, read an Emily Dickinson poem and talked with students, and made a unique donation."

Flavor Flav at the Bud Light Super Bowl Music Fest 2023

The poem he read was "A Clock Stopped," a lesser-known Dickinson that focuses on a recurring theme in the poet's work, confronting mortality and the passage of time, and specifically here, one's hubris in the face of it. The poem was likely chosen, either for that air of remorse with which Flav speaks about his past addictions, or for the fact that it's called "A Clock Stopped" and Flavor Flav often wears a big clock around his neck. Probably a little from column A, a little from column B.

As for that gift, Flav chose to bestow one of his classic clock necklaces to Harvard's growing Hip Hop Archive Research Institute, whose stated goal is to "facilitate and encourage the pursuit of knowledge, art, culture and responsible leadership through Hiphop."

We just hope Flav has another clock available to donate to a venture we're hoping to crowdfund soon: the "Mid-2000s VH1 Celeb-Reality Shows Archive Research Institute." It will receive a prominent place in the Flavor of Love wing.

Michael Natale

News Editor

Michael Natale is the news editor for Best Products, covering a wide range of topics like gifting, lifestyle, pop culture, and more. He has covered pop culture and commerce professionally for over a decade. His past journalistic writing can be found on sites such as Yahoo! and Comic Book Resources, his podcast appearances can be found wherever you get your podcasts, and his fiction can’t be found anywhere, because it’s not particularly good.