Jay-Z Provides the Blueprint for College Course

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``You're doing the class there,'' Dyson says Jay-Z told him. ``I'm doing kind of the master class while I'm in concert.'' Photo: Joella Marano
``You're doing the class there,'' Dyson says Jay-Z told him. ``I'm doing kind of the master class while I'm in concert.'' Photo: Joella Marano

WASHINGTON - Michael Eric Dyson parses Jay-Z's rap lyrics of as if analyzing fine literature. The rapper's riffs on luxury cars and tailored clothes and boasts of being the ``Mike Jordan of recording'' may make for catchy rhymes, but to Dyson, they also reflect incisive social commentary.

Dyson, a professor, author, radio host and television personality, has offered at Georgetown University this semester a popular, if unusual, class dedicated to Jay-Z and his career. The course, ``Sociology of Hip Hop: Jay-Z, confronts topics present in any sociology course: racial and gender identity, sexuality, capitalism and economic inequality.

``I think he's an icon of American excellence,'' Dyson said.

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