Kanye West is the latest hip-hop artist to get his very own college curriculum. Dr. Jeffery McCune, a professor at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, has developed a college course titled “Politics of Kanye West: Black Genius and Sonic Aesthetics.” The Kanye-inspired course touch on “the black genius and the impossibility of black genius for the American public.” Dr. McCune decided to use Kanye as the curriculum’s muse because of his ability to showcase the totality of his creative talents through the culture of hip-hop. “I always wanted to teach a course looking at black genius and the impossibility of black genius for the American public,” Dr. Jeffrey McCune said while speaking with the St. Louis Patch. “We’re always thought of as maybe being articulate or smart but not really genius … Hip-hop is a way to show our creative genius. Kanye really uses hip-hop as a vehicle to display all of his talents, albeit some better than others.” McCune’s plan is to use the course to help students connect and understand other pertinent issues as race, sexuality, politics, and such. There are currently 75 students enrolled in the course. Topics they will cover are “I Love Kanye, or How Critique Slips Into Hate” and “Love Lock Down, or Hip-Hop’s Queer Love Languages.”
