Armstrong State University To Offer A Course About OutKast
Now tell us, what’s cooler than being cool? Well in this case, it would probably be Armstrong State University adding an English course about iconic hip hop duo OutKast to its curriculum. Thanks to Professor Regina Bradley PhD, an African American Literature professor at the school, the new generation will always know how influential OutKast was to hip hop.
READ: Outkast Performed At The Dungeon Family Reunion And It Was Too Lit For Words
What originally inspired Dr. Bradley’s conquest to bring OuKast into the classroom was a lack of southern artists being represented in hip-hop studies courses. “As someone from Albany, GA, I wanted to know why there were no conversations about the artists I listened to growing up in the South. This course reflects my need to see more of my experiences as a southern hip hop enthusiast in scholarly conversations about hip hop in general,” she told Pigeons & Planes.
The course will reportedly use OutKast’s music alongside other records to explore how they contributed to political expression. Dr. Bradley said the course will also focus on how Andre 3000 and Big Boi used their art to “question and experiment with what is and what is not black southernness.”
Of course we all recognize 1996’s ATLiens and 2000’s Stankonia as hip hop’s truest treasures, but the ASU professor explained why OutKast’s legacy deserves to be analyzed in a scholastic setting and not just on the car stereo. “OutKast is more than deserving of close analysis, especially in thinking about contemporary southernness because they were many folks’ first introduction to the possibility of southern rappers. They opened the door,” Bradley said.
READ: Debate Us: OutKast’s Albums Ranked Worst To Best
The course has not been given an official title, but Dr. Bradley revealed that it would include select readings from OutKast’s discography, Zandra Robinson’s This Ain’t Chicago, and Jesym Ward’s Where the Line Bleeds, according to P&P. The course will reportedly conclude with a 12-15 page “nerdy hip hop review” essay on an album of the student’s choice.
Where do we sign up?
