Literature professor Andrew Hoberek has some pretty progressive views on education; he's offering a class on the art of Kanye and Jay-Z at the University of Missouri this semester. Because every parent wants to hear "I'm getting a degree in Kanye!" from their little precious.
A University of Missouri professor is offering a course on Kanye West and Jay-Z in the hopes it'll help students figure out for themselves what art is.
“Our department has courses on Shakespeare, Melville and other authors who are considered artists without question,” literature professor Andrew Hoberek said. “So why not give the students something and ask them what makes it art and if they believe it is art, instead of giving them something and just telling them it’s art?”
The course will cover topics such as how what Kanye and Jay-Z do differs from what poets do, and how their rise to both celebrity and corporate power alters how we view the American dream. Topics that likely won't be covered are any one of Kanye's Twitter fits, Kim Kardashian's butt, or how as a baby, Jay-Z weighed a whopping 11 lbs., but "didn’t give his mom any pain" and that’s "how she knew he was special."
Andrew explained his choice to focus on Yeezus and Hov because he considers what they do with words and music comparable to what poets and authors have done with literature in the past, and thinks they're changing society with their words.
And you know what? We couldn't agree more:
We just wonder why he didn't choose this guy for his class:
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