Jay and ‘Ye inspire higher learning with college course about American literature

English professor Andrew Hoberek from the University of Missouri came up with a great educational idea while listening to two of the game’s hottest artists.

Hoberek has offered a course called “English 2169: Jay-Z and Kanye West”. The class was first available for students in the Fall of 2013 and despite criticisms, the class really has a lot of useful information while teaching about the Roc La Familia alumni. Below is the actual course description:

Course Description: This course looks at the career and work of Jay-Z and Kanye West from three 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?

3) How does their rise to both celebrity and corporate power alter what we understand as the American dream? In addition to listening to music and watching videos, we wil also read 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.

-Sha Be Allah(@KingPenStatus)