You Must Learn: Hip-Hop Education On College Campuses
As colleges and universities across the country start their fall semesters, hip-hop curricula are popular course choices.
In 1989, hip-hop legend KRS One of Boogie Down Productions issued a lyrical decree to fans of the genre when his group released the song, You Must Learn. KRS’s lyrics implored young hip-hop fans to “do the knowledge” about Black history as a means of combating stereotypes and to enhance their awareness about their culture. Decades later, utilizing the art form as a method of educating the masses has permeated classrooms across the United States, as hip-hop has become more than a soundtrack; on many campuses, it is a prominent aspect of curricula.
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Hip-hop courses have become a mainstay in college classrooms, attracting students to coursework that is culturally relevant and principled in its theories and practices. In a variety of diverse college settings, programs have been built around understanding hip-hop culture as a force that has shaped American life in a number of ways, such as language, politics, technology, and art.
At Howard University, interested students can pursue a minor in hip-hop studies with courses such as Prophetic Hip Hop and the African American Literary Tradition and Entrepreneurship in the Business of Music and Arts. The University of Arizona also offers a minor in hip-hop culture that offers students the opportunity to study hip-hop's influence on identity and style. North Carolina Central offers a history degree with a hip-hop concentration, and at Columbia College Chicago, students have the option of exploring theory and practice through its Hip-Hop Studies minor that is branded as an opportunity to “deepen your connection to hip-hop through a blend of hands-on experiences and thoughtful coursework”.
Even some of the world’s most prestigious institutions of higher education, which may have once shunned the idea of implementing hip-hop into their programs, have come on board in recent years. In 2022, Grammy-winning artist Lupe Fiasco taught a course at MIT called "en plein air rapping," where students were able to write and record verses outdoors while learning about the art of composing rhymes from one of the most gifted lyricists of all time.
Check The Rhyme: The Value of Studying Hip-Hop in Coursework
Ingrid Banks, an Assistant Professor of Black Studies in the Center for Interdisciplinary Studies at Virginia Tech, can attest to the power of hip-hop opening the window of critical thinking for the students she engages with.
"My most serious students are the die-hard hip-hop fans," she says. "They are able to understand politics because they understand hip-hop." Professor Banks credits hip-hop as being a useful lens for her students to see and understand the world through, sociopolitically.
Renowned scholar Murray Forman, of Northeastern University, who has written widely about popular music, age, and culture, shares a similar sentiment about not only the efficacy of teaching hip-hop-oriented curricula, but about the growth of its study on college campuses.
