The University of Arizona has become a school that takes hip hop seriously. So seriously in fact that they now offer a minor in “Hip-Hop Concentration” for the College of Humanities’ for Africana Studies.
Focusing on the origins and cultural implications of the art form, the objectives of the minor aim to, “provide students with a solid introduction and broad understanding of the origins and developing of the forms of expression that make up Hip-Hop cultures throughout the world: Hip-Hop dance, rap music, graffiti/tagging, fashion, business, and film. The Minor introduces students to the main themes represented in Hip-Hop cultures: appropriation and defense of spaces, mixing of different cultures, migrations, multilingualism, race, class, gender, religions, sexuality, nationality, politics and the economy, and, the search for identity.”
Courses for the minor have a wide range of studies with a focus on African-American History, and include, “Rap, Culture and God, Hip-Hop Cinema, US & Francophone Hip-Hop Cultures, Blacks in Hollywood, Pan-African Dance Aesthetics.”
UA acknowledges the deep impact which hip hop has had on all types of mainstream culture, and hope to help students learn how it has, “impacted many elements of mainstream American culture to the extent that corporations have embraced hip-hop music and artists as a means of marketing goods to everyone.”
[Via AHH]