This spring, University of Missouri English professor Andrew Hoberek will again be teaching a course that seems to gain relevance each semester — the simply titled "English 2169: Jay Z and Kanye West"
Hoberek's course examines the two titans of hip-hop as both poets and artists, placing them in the broader context of the genre while diving into specific works. While he is certainly not the first academic to look critically at hip-hop, it is unlikely that any other scholar is devoting this much study to the relationship between Jay Z and Kanye West.
"I really do think that these guys are warming up to the level of major poets, and not many people think of it in those terms ... Specifically, how, especially with Blueprint 3 and Yeezus, there's an identifiable push to get beyond what's happening in the art form," Hoberek told music website Consequence of Sound.
Here's the course description of "English 2169: Jay Z and Kanye West" from the University of Missouri English department:
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.