While at Jay-Z’s recent charity event, Dr. Michael Eric Dyson speaks with MTV about the impact Jay-Z has had on the culture and how he’s teaching a course at Georgetown, the Sociology of Hip Hop: Jay-Z, which revolves around the man himself.
Well obviously Jay-Z is one of the greatest entertainers of the world today. Not only is he a remarkable rhetorical genius, he’s also a man of deep sympathy and empathy for those who are lost and vulnerable, but especially under-educated youth of all cultures and stripes.
Speaking out against rap music is useless, and it’s futile. The reality is there’s criticism for everything, but Jay-Z is one of the most remarkable artists of our time of any genre, and as a hip-hop artist he carries the weight of that art form with such splendor and grace and genius. I admire the way in which he carries himself and the incredible craft that he displays every time he steps up to the microphone.
The required reading for the course? Jay-Z’s Decoded (which will soon be re-released as a paperback), Adam Bradley’s Book of Rhymes and Zack O’Malley Greenburg’s Empire State of Mind.
