(Image Source: Gawker)

BY JENNIFER LONG

College students might have 99 problems, but now finding a class on hip-hop culture isn’t one of them. CNN explains.

“Students at Georgetown are cracking open the books on a brand new course featuring the musical stylings of Jay-Z. The course examines the sociology of hip-hop through the life and work of one of America’s most famous artists.”

So the course isn’t about “dope lyrics” or “cool beats.” Professor Michael Eric Dyson tells the Washington Post the class addresses important social issues such as race, gender and ethnicity.

“I want students to appreciate that genius. I want them to understand how complicated the art and craft that he engages in is. And to appreciate that young black people in America who have often been stigmatized as unintelligent, demonized as inferior intellectually, can produce superior art.”

But many are skeptical, not just with the course material, but with the professor. A blogger for Gawker says...

“One notable thing about Michael Eric Dyson is that although he is very good at being an academic celebrity, he doesn't know BLANK about hip hop ... He has found an absolutely bulletproof niche, though: presiding as an expert in hip hop culture in front of groups who are in no position to challenge his jargon-laden theories about hip hop...”

And the conversation continues at Georgetown’s college paper The Hoya. One student voices his opinion saying...

“It speaks volumes that we engage in the beat of Carter's pseudo-music while we scrounge to find serious academic offerings on Beethoven and Liszt. We dissect the lyrics of 'Big Pimpin‘,' but we don't read Spenser or Sophocles closely."

Students who have taken the class argue back in another opinion article. They say,  

“...devaluing the artistic merit of Jay-Z and the genre of hip-hop ... is perpetuating the trend in America of venerating white, affluent, male voices at the expense of other identity groups historically pushed to the outskirts of the intellectual sphere.”

According to ABC, 140 students are enrolled in the class. That’s three times the size of a typical seminar at Georgetown. And a blogger for the Inquisitr reminds us its not uncommon for a university to schedule an attention-grabbing course.

“Given the number of professors who teach Klingon and other strange subjects I have to say at least this particular class might make sense from a pop cultural and business perspective.”

Dyson authored a book on the subject in 2007. In the foreword Jay-Z called Dyson “the most brilliant interpreter of hip-hop culture we have."