The Hip Hop curriculum is taking over higher education, as the latest learning trend incorporates none other than today’s Hip Hop greats! The University of Missouri is set to offer a class focusing on the influential and cultural relationship between Jay Z and Kanye West; hit the jump for more.
The English 2169 class, simply titled ‘Jay Z & Kanye West’ made its first appearance in the fall 2013 semester, and focuses its curriculum on 3 perspectives:
“(1) Where do they fit within, and how do they change, the history of hip-hop music?; (2) How is what they do similar to and different from what poets do?, and (3) How does their rise to both celebrity and corporate power alter what we understand as the American dream?” Course material includes “Jay-Z’s Decoded; histories of and critical works on rap music by Jeff Chang, Adam Bradley, and others; and one or two good studies of how poetry works.”
Instructor Andrew Hoberek, stated of his new class:
“I really do think that these guys are warming up to the level of major poets, and not many people think of it in those terms. Because it’s not just on a page, but it’s video art, too. So, we looked at how those complicated the questions, and how do books about poetry help us to understand rap with Jay and Kanye at the forefront. We looked at the larger history of rap as an art form. Specifically, how, especially with Blueprint 3 and Yeezus, there’s an identifiable push to get beyond what’s happening in the art form. They’re very much like painters and novelists in the 20th century, moving beyond the confines of the art form’s boundaries.”
