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It’s Dr. Lucazi, now.

White Pine’s Lex Warren, who goes by the professional name Lex Lucazi in his career as a music executive and producer, was honored with an honorary doctorate degree by Livingstone University in Salisberry, North Carolina during commencement ceremonies last weekend.

Warren has been instrumental in working with the college and Grammy-winning music executive Adrian Miller to create a new school of music at the college.

Warren said the moments leading up to the recognition were overwhelming.

“I knew this was going to happen but when it actually started to happen … You think about the people you’ve lost, the people you wish could have seen it,” he said. “When they put that doctorate banner around my neck? Shew.

“Walking with all these people getting doctorates, it was absolutely amazing.”

Warren said he sent his sister a text message.

“I think I might have done something right this time,” he told her.

Warren is an award-winning record producer and six-times platinum accredited musician.

He appeared on the Grammy nominated “BET” award winning “TI vs Tip” album. He won the Native American Music Award’s Song of the Year and Los Angeles Music Video Award’s Song of the Year.

He was nominated for the Canadian Indigenous Music Award and for the Tennessee Hip-Hop Awards. He is currently the director of creative services in A&R for Xyion for which Miller also serves as owner and managing partner.

The school said in a release that Miller announced he was creating a recording studio at Livingstone College, named the Adrian M. Miller Conservatory in Frequency and Harmony” for his contributions to and support of the arts, and the scholarship of the next generation of musical artists and industry changemakers.

The school is named after his son.

“Personally, this meant a lot to me to visit you all from LA (Los Angeles) and to be here today. While my family is not celebrating as much (due to a death), it bears my heart and soul and spirit to be here to say Livingstone will be announcing its music program: The Conservatory Adrian M. Miller School of Harmony and Frequency,” Miller said. “I could not have done this without my good brother, Dr. Lex, the multimedia expertise Synphony (Keith Anderson of Livingstone) and Dr. (Dr. Anthony J.) Davis (president). We look forward to giving you all the platform you deserve in the entertainment industry.”

The school of music will serve as a catalyst for the creation of a communications major and a certification program among the college’s current degree program offerings.

There is a heightened interest among students in the college’s on-campus radio station, WLJZ 107.1 FM, particularly in music, audio production and engineering. In order to cultivate and sustain that growing interest, Livingstone is partnering with Miller to develop a music engineering degree/certification program in a newly-designed and equipped studio.

Miller, in partnership with Warren, will assist in providing the capital to design, build and equip the music studio.

This will be “one of the first of its kind on an HBCU college campus,” said Davis.

Warren said part of the idea for the school will be to give students who hope to work in the entertainment industry the knowledge and tools necessary to operate in the technical side of the business, not just as talent.

“Many have dreams of being in the spotlight,” he said, “but they can use this to find a way to work in the industry professionally.

Warren said it’s been a journey to get to this point and that he’s put a lot of work into the idea on his own time. He said when he visited he fell in love with the school and the way faculty builds personal relationships with students. He said he wanted to do anything he could to help its students.

“I wasn’t expecting them to give me a doctorate,” he said. “But a lot of people recognized the work I was doing. The whole thing is, if we can change the life of even one kid, I’m doing my job.”

Warren said they’re working on scholarship opportunities and he hopes that kids from the Lakeway Area can access the program and use it as a way bridge to attend the university, gain their education and start a career.

Warren said it couldn’t be done without the work of Miller, Anderson and the support of Davis.

“Dr. Davis is cutting edge, brilliant,” he said. “And Dr. Anderson has been my guiding light, mentoring me through this journey.”