Hip-hop culture, rap music and social identities are the newest way to nab four credits spring quarter in the Gender and Women’s Studies program.
“It is the first course to be taught at DU that is directly for hip-hop culture,” said McNeely Cobham, who is the assistant provost and will teach the class.
“Topics of hip-hop have shown up in various pockets but not a whole 10-week class dedicated to it,” said Cobham.
The course will be covering the history of hip-hop in the U.S. starting with its birth in the early 1970s when Ronald Reagan was president at the time and the country was engaged in the Vietnam War.
Cobham is interested in exploring the birth of hip-hop in the Bronx area of New York in the early 1970s where she said the youth culture resisted authority to create their own culture.
“Some may not see value in teaching this,” said Cobham “but people said the same thing about hip-hop in the 1970s. Now hip-hop has become a billion dollar business. It is an art form and it will not go away. It has situated itself as mainstream culture.”
“I see a lot of students who enjoy hip-hop and enjoy music and the beats but this will teach students to appreciate hip-hop in terms of its’ cannon beyond the beats and dancing, there’s so much more to it,” Cobham said.
A maximum of 30 students will be accepted into the course. It will require students to write three papers in response to films, readings and discussions. Each student will give a presentation on a form of music or artist that has not been discussed in class.
“There’s value in reciprocal learning experience,” Cobham said.
Guest speakers who are hip-hop artists will speak to the class.
“The guest speakers will be underground artists who will come to talk about feelings of disenfranchisement and not being recognized for real talent,” said Cobham. “They had to take a different road to get to success because they would not sell out, or sell their soul.”
Cobham suggested that because the undergraduate requirements recently changed, including the elimination of CREX and CORE credits, this course could be applied toward elective credits.
The course is beneficial for anyone studying social work, psychology, music, gender, identity, urban issues in America, anthropology or sociology and will interest both men and women, said Cobham.
The course can be found on myWeb under Gender and Women’s Studies. The course is listed as GWST 2700; Topics in Gender and Women’s Studies: Hip-Hop and Social Identities.
“I want to leave students who participate with something that resonates in them every time they hear hip-hop,” said Cobham.
