Would you enroll in “The Sociology of Hip Hop: Jay-Z?” Of course you would, and many Georgetown students did when professor and author Michael Eric Dyson rolled out the curriculum two years ago. Soon thereafter, tenured critics pounced on Dyson and questioned the educational value of the course.
“[The class] just happens to have an interesting object of engagement in Jay-Z,” Dyson told the Chicago Sun-Times at the time. “It’s like Jesus talking to the woman at the well. You ask for a drink of water, and then you get into some theological discussions.”
Nowadays hip-hop artists are teaching classes about their genre at the nation’s top colleges and universities. These high-profile professors lecture, engage with students and, in some cases, will perform.
