In the spring semester, North Carolina A&T will have a new honors course in the English Department: So You Wanna Hustle? A capitalistic reading of Jay-Z.

The course is special topics in Humanities.  It will be taught by Anjan Basu, a professor in the English department.

Jay-Z has been called one of the most successful and influential musicians of the 21st century.  He has influenced music, various industries and the larger American popular culture.  

In the words of Jay-Z, “I brought pop across the road.”

Yet, even in acting as rap’s ambassador to the rest of America, capitalistic tropes are easily spotted.

The style of the course will focus on two aspects of Jay-Z: the narrative themes found in his body of work, and how these narrative themes compare and contrast to traditional practices, ideologies, and frameworks of operation of 21st century American capitalism.  

In creating and applying a framework of study to economic and literary theory, students will develop a sharpened ability to critically analyze and evaluate.  More so, students will be able to effectively communicate their findings.  

Ray Davis, the Interim Honors Program Director said, “the students will have to identify themes and tropes of two independent subjects; economics and literature.

Analysis will include the tropes of globalization, market domination, the dynamics of limited resource and endless wealth accumulation, profit margin and humanitarianism, regulation and non-regulation, and of the free market.”

Studying the literary themes of Jay-Z’s lyrics, students will identify the themes of literary analysis: decode images, similes and metaphors, observe time progression. Students will also  examine point of view, apply Frietag’s Pyramid, and discuss the standards of literary analysis.

The seminar will culminate with a final writing project, a paper 10-15 pages in length.  The topic of the paper will be loosely based upon the idea of Jay-Z as a self-created brand and industry that originated from the outer edge and his legitimacy to such claims.

Basu stated his expectations for the class is to use Jay-Z lyrics to explain and explore the basic modes of capitalism and entrepreneurship as we know it today.

“Jay-Z is definitely one of the greatest rappers. He is prolific and insistent,” said Basu.

“He uses the tools that were given to him- money, sex and power. Using the tools that he was already given, even though he had no control over, I believe in that.”

“I hope the class doesn’t make his lyrics go into vain. One of the reasons I think he is the greatest rapper because he is versatile and comes from all different directions. He comes from the slums in Brooklyn, now he is one of the richest people in the world,” said Orlando Daye, a junior supply chain management major from Burlington, NC.

“It should be available to all students, me for example, I’m not an honors student but I would love to take the class.”

• Janae Smith