Sign Up for English Course 2169 at Mizzou

[gblowfish]

The collected works of Jay-Z and Kanye West. I shit you not...
Can you say "blow off class for football and basketball players?"

When I was at Mizzou all the athletes took "Geology 101" or "Rocks for Jocks."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/0...?ir=Weird+News

Some University of Missouri students will need to have a copy of the "Watch the Throne" album if they sign up for English 2169. That's because the English class is primarily devoted to studying two of hip-hop's biggest stars: Jay-Z and Kanye West.

Andrew Hoberek, who has a background in 20th century literature, first taught the course in fall 2013. The class filled up quickly, prompting him to make an early decision to offer the course again in fall 2014.

The course description reads:

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?, and (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 will 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.

Hoberek told The Huffington Post he was listening to a lot of Kanye and Jay-Z while trying to decide what classes to offer in the fall 2013 semester. He'd heard about the pop culture-themed courses at other universities, and came up with own version based on Yeezy and the Jigga Man.

The class had four main points Hoberek touched on, as he explained in an email to HuffPost:

1) the history of poetic form in English, and how it does and doesn't apply to rap; 2) the history of rap as a new art form; 3) how to do research into popular culture; and 4) most importantly, how to become a better, more knowledgeable listener to rap music.

With one semester in the bag, Hoberek considers the class a success for a couple of reasons.

"The subject matter lends itself to questions about what it means to treat something seriously as a work of art," Hoberek said, a nod to the notion these hip-hop artists aren't exactly the usual focus of a collegiate level course.

The students also came into the class already critics, Hoberek said, some with defined opinions about Jay-Z and Kanye.

"Working from that point, I wanted to teach them that what we do in English classes isn’t about 'reading into' things, or ruining what makes them pleasurable," Hoberek explained. "On the contrary, studying works of art closely and learning about their history can make them even more pleasurable."

[Rain Man]

"If basketball doesn't work out, I need a backup plan. That's why I'm studying rap."

[Dragonocho]

College students have 99 problems....but studying for this course ain't one.

[Bambi]

[Reaper16]

The kinds of teachers who propose these classes are doing so because they really want to teach the material. This will be no blowoff class, I assure you.

[gblowfish]

"Now class, can somebody tell me why, Kanye repeats the word "mother****er" sixty eight times in this poetic narrative?"

[ShortRoundChief]

Originally Posted by gblowfish

"Now class, can somebody tell me why, Kanye repeats the word "mother****er" sixty eight times in this poetic narrative?"

I know this and I haven't even taken the class. The word "mother****er" has a variety of meanings so although he did use the some word 68 times, each had a different meaning.

[Rausch]

What I would have given for a Pink Floyd or Beatles appreciation class...

[KC native]

Originally Posted by Reaper16

The kinds of teachers who propose these classes are doing so because they really want to teach the material. This will be no blowoff class, I assure you.

heh, it reminds me of my most hated class at TCU ever. It was Hollywood and Literature 101, no tag line or anything. I was thinking, "Hey, smoke a joint, watch a movie and write a paper about it. I can do that."

When I got to class on the first day, the professor is an adjunct from New Zealand. Turns out the full title of the class was Hollywood and Literature: Steven Speilberg's blah blah blah. It was ****ing awful. I had to write bullshit papers on bullshit Steven Spielberg movies. The professor hated me because I argued with him about how Speilberg's movies weren't that deep and there were much better movies to use. One of my best friend's future wife was in that class with me. She thought I was hilarious because of how much I would piss the teacher off when he would ask me if I saw anything deeper about the movies and I would answer, "No, it's a Speilberg movie."

One of our papers was on Jaws and he really hated me after that. He asked me if Jaws was a symbol for something. I replied, "Yea, it's a symbol for white people on the east coast being scared of sharks." Everyone laughed. He did not.

[BlackHelicopters]

What about Dr. Dre and Puffy Combs?

[oldandslow]

Originally Posted by Reaper16

The kinds of teachers who propose these classes are doing so because they really want to teach the material. This will be no blowoff class, I assure you.

Yep...

Back a million years ago I took a class called Science Fiction Literature & Film and another on the Humor of Mark Twain.

Both were harder than the stats/calc classes I was taking at the same time.

[Prison Bitch]

Originally Posted by KC native

The professor hated me .

Everyone hates you.

[KC native]

Originally Posted by Prison Bitch

Everyone hates you.

Keep DC in DC Fred.

[gblowfish]

I took a course from the music department called "History of Jazz, Pop and Rock." It was a great course and really gave me appreciation of lots of stuff I had never heard of before, especially the Jazz stuff. It was a life changing course, and I say that in all seriousness.

[saphojunkie]

Originally Posted by theelusiveeightrop

What about Ice Cube and Notorious BIG?

Fixed it.