Albert Laguna, an associate professor at Yale University, is teaching a Bad Bunny course this fall.

“Bad Bunny: Musical Aesthetics and Politics” will focus on the artist’s influence in understanding the Puerto Rican diaspora. Laguna plans to use Bad Bunny’s music as a lens to explore history and the intersection of art and social issues.

Why did Albert Laguna create a Bad Bunny course?

He was inspired to create the course after listening to Bad Bunny’s latest album, Debí Tirar Más Fotos, while on vacation in New Orleans.

“I was walking around New Orleans, caught up in the Caribbeanness of the city, just listening to the album over and over again,” Laguna told the Yale Daily News. “I was taken by how every song opens up avenues of exploration in relation to topics that are important to me.”

Laguna specifically highlighted “Nuevayol,” the first track from the album, which samples Andy Montañez and El Gran Combo De Puerto Rico’s “Un Verano en Nueva York,” signifying the historical relationship between Puerto Rico and New York.

“You cannot tell the story of Puerto Rico from the 19th century to the present without New York and the movement of people and cultural production back and forth between both places,” Laguna said.

What will students learn in the Bad Bunny class?

The goal of Laguna’s class is to expose students to the socially conscious choices Bad Bunny makes in his art. The class will also learn about the genres that have influenced Bad Bunny, including bomba, plena, salsa and reggaeton.

“Of equal importance will be our engagement with how musical genres and aesthetic choices manifest these histories and challenges as well,” Laguna said. “You can ‘hear’ what the mass migration of Puerto Ricans made possible. Reggaeton in Puerto Rico cannot be divorced from musical flows in the region inseparable from colonial projects in the Americas, and locally, the politics of policing on the island. The class will be attuned to these histories and their sonic manifestations.”

The Yale Daily News reported that as of Monday, 44 students had registered for the course.