The University of Mumbai (MU) will be introducing Hip-Hop this academic year, with a certificate course — ‘Introduction to Hip Hop Studies’ which will be a three-month course at ₹5,000 and will commence in June.
It’s the brainchild of Dr. Sanjay Ranade, Head of the Department of Communication and Journalism at MU. Notably, the course received final approval from an expert committee recently.
The coordinator of this course will be Yatindra Ingle who also happens to be a rapper. Ingle said that a committee was put together to make sure a subject like Hip-Hop can be taught. The approval has come and we are all set to attract many students.
However, this genre, which encapsulates art, music, dance, literature, identity, style and politics, returned to the limelight after the film ‘Gully Boy’ released earlier this month.
The course will enable the students to go back to the days when Hip-Hop was first introduced in the streets of the US as a platform to speak out against oppression, violence, identity, culture, and power,” said Ingle.
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The programme will provide students with a basic introduction to the art form, the politics linked to it, and the national and racial boundaries the art form has crossed along with discussing women in Hip-Hop. Artistes from this particular field will help students to understand the concept during their weekend classes. Students will have to submit a thesis on selected topics related to the art form and appear for a written exam to pass the course.
According to Juhi Babbar Soni, a theatre artiste, any form of art is an inherent talent, but over the years, we have seen how even the best artiste has required traditional training to hone their skills better. This is an interesting course and is affordable.