Another prestigious institution of higher learning has joined the ranks of schools all across the nation offering hip-hop courses. Students at Atlanta’s Georgia Institute of Technology can now enroll in Exploring the Lyrics of Outcast and Trap Music to Explore the Politics of Social Justice.

Taught by Dr. Joycelyn Wilson of TEDx lecture “The Outcast Imagination,” Walking With Guns and The Untold Story of Atlanta’s Rise In The Rap Game fame, the class is centered around the trap sound as popularized by Shawty Red, Mike WiLL Made-It and DJ Toomp. The class will “allow us to broaden and deepen our understandings of the music within the larger tradition of cultural expression,” Wilson says.

She believes that by conducting analysis of soundscape metadata while also learning about trap’s societal impact, her students will be better equipped to “make sense of what’s happening around them culturally.”

This is of particular import to Wilson, because she realizes that her students of today will be the leaders and innovators of tomorrow. As they go out into the wider world, she wants to be sure the lessons they drew from T.I., Migos, UGK and others in her class empower them; that exploring “trap as an ideology of self-determination, social justice, and civic engagement” will serve them well in “their work-life after graduation.”

The course began on January 13, and will run during Georgia Tech’s spring semester. Those not fortunate enough to be currently enrolled in Dr. Wilson’s class can find her lectures and essays on her website.

Geogia Tech

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