[3] Boyd received his PhD in Communication Studies from the University of Iowa in 1991 and began his professorial career at USC in the fall of 1992.
Boyd has also appeared in The Crossover: 50 Years of Sports and Hip Hop (ESPN, 2023), Goliath [Wilt Chamberlain] (Showtime, 2023),Say Hey, Willie Mays!
(HBO, 2022), Ken Burns’ Muhammad Ali (PBS, 2021), Bitchin’: The Sound and Fury of RickJames (Showtime, 2021) Blood Brothers (Netflix, 2021) and The Movies (CNN, 2019), Sammy Davis Jr.: I Gotta Be Me (American Masters/PBS, 2019), The Nineties and The 2000s (CNN, 2017, 2018) among numerous other titles.
His books include Rapper’s Deluxe: How Hip Hop Made the World (Phaidon, 2024), The Notorious Ph.D’s Guide to the Super Fly 70s (Broadway/Random House, 2007), Young Black Rich and Famous: The Rise of the NBA, the Hip Hop Invasion, and the Transformation of American Culture (Doubleday/Random House, 2003), The New H.N.I.C: The Death of Civil Rights and the Reign of Hip Hop (NYU Press, 2002) and Am I Black Enough for You?
He has also provided voice-over commentary on the DVD edition of the films Stormy Weather (1943), Cabin in the Sky (1943), Super Fly (1972), and Uptown Saturday Night (1974).