You may play hip-hop music while driving in your car. You may dance to it at a party. Whether you are a fan or not, the genre is prominent in today’s culture. Along with classical and jazz music, in recent years the genre has been gaining academic acknowledgement.
Since the 1990s, many universities have offered classes examining hip-hop history and culture. In recent years, the subject has gained more academic recognition, with University of Arizona establishing the nation’s first hip-hop minor in February 2013.
Despite its increasing prevalence the academic study of hip-hop remains controversial. When Georgetown began offering a course on rapper Jay-Z, the academic value of the subject received media scrutiny. When UA announced its hip-hop minor, UA music professor Daniel Asia told the Arizona Daily Star that the “core of (UA’s) mission has been demeaned” by the addition of the minor, which he viewed as a trendy addition to the school’s courses.
According to Loren Kajikawa, who teaches Hip-Hop History, Culture and Aesthetics at the University of Oregon, hip-hop is an easy target for these criticisms because of its high public profile in today’s culture. Though the media may criticize hip-hop studies, Kajikawa said, there is often no debate among the students taking the courses. @@http://music.uoregon.edu/people/faculty/kajikawa.htm@@

“On the Georgetown campus there’s no controversy about the Jay-Z course being valuable or worthy,” Kajikawa said.
UO student Aaron Bishow, who took Kajikawa’s course in fall 2012, did not have a difficult time finding the educational value in the subject. According to Bishow, to not study the subject would undervalue its effect on American society and its power as an art form. @@http://www.uoregon.edu/findpeople/person/Aaron*Bishow@@
“To not study it would be insulting in a way,” Bishow said. “It’s definitely a significant piece of our contemporary culture.”
According to Kajikawa, exploring hip-hop opens discussion for a wider variety of topics, many of which are significant to American history and its dealings with racial issues.

“It’s a window into changing ideas because in its commercial reach because it’s always been marketed as African-American music or black music. I think it presents different ideas about race,” Kajikawa said.

Because the music often explores sensitive issues of racial injustice, Kajikawa is aware that hip-hop music and its history must be explored carefully, or risk perpetuating negative stereotypes.

“If you’re talking about gangsta rap artists making reference to that culture of life in prison or life selling drugs and you don’t have a developed understanding of the history or political implications of those issues, then there is a danger that you’re going to misinform students,” Kajikawa said.

By understanding the history, though, Kajikawa believes people can better understand the complexity of hip-hop and the identities it presents.
“It’s music that’s functioned as a voice for people who haven’t had other means of getting their opinions or ideas or experiences out. In that way I think it’s an important window into life in the United States,” he said. “At the same time, it’s also great music.”