Howard University is taking hip hop scholarship to a bold new level. The legendary HBCU has announced the launch of a new three-credit course inspired by rap superstar Cardi B and her sophomore album Am I the Drama? — and it is set to debut in Fall 2026. The course is not just about the music. It is about the machinery behind it: the art, the production, the marketing strategy, and the cultural conversation that surrounds one of the most talked-about artists of her generation.
Howard University’s New Cardi B Course Bridges Hip Hop, Business, and Cultural Theory
The course, officially titled “The Cardi B: Am I the Drama? The Art, Production, Marketing, and Cultural Impact,” was developed in partnership with the Warner Music Blavatnik Center for Music Business. That partnership signals something important — this is not a fan tribute or a pop culture elective. It is a serious academic initiative designed to give students a real-time understanding of how artistry and strategy intersect in today’s music industry.
According to Howard, the class will bridge music, business, marketing, media, gender studies, production, and cultural theory — with Cardi B at the center of a much larger academic conversation. Students will walk away with a deep understanding of how modern music campaigns are built, how artists manage public attention at scale, and how controversy itself becomes a deliberate part of narrative formation. In an era where making good music alone is simply not enough to sustain a career, that kind of education is genuinely invaluable.
What Students Will Learn: From Album Campaigns to the Politics of Black Womanhood
The course goes well beyond a surface-level analysis of Cardi B’s discography. At its core, the class invites students to examine how a Black woman navigates power, visibility, and public scrutiny in one of the most unforgiving industries in the world. That lens makes the course as much a study in sociology and gender politics as it is in music business.
Howard has shared that the course will examine live performance and cultural production through a hip hop feminist lens, using Cardi B’s career to open discussions about respectability politics, misogynoir, agency, visibility, and the policing of Black womanhood. Those are not abstract concepts in an ivory tower — they are lived realities that show up in every headline, every music video, and every public controversy that surrounds artists like Cardi B on a daily basis.
Furthermore, students will learn how artists build and sustain campaigns in a media landscape that moves faster than ever before. Understanding how to turn public attention — including negative attention — into narrative power is a skill that applies far beyond the music industry. For aspiring entrepreneurs, marketers, and creatives of all kinds, the lessons embedded in this course carry real-world weight.
Meet the Professors Behind Howard’s Groundbreaking Hip Hop Feminist Course
The course will be co-taught by two educators whose academic backgrounds make them uniquely suited for this kind of interdisciplinary work. Dr. Msia Kibona Clark, associate professor of African Studies and director of the Hip Hop Studies minor at Howard, brings deep expertise in hip hop culture, African diasporic identity, and Black feminist thought. Her involvement ensures that the course is rooted in rigorous academic tradition while remaining culturally relevant.
Joining her is Professor Pat Parks, theatre arts administration coordinator in the Chadwick A. Boseman College of Fine Arts. His background in performance and cultural production adds a dimension to the course that goes beyond theory — grounding the analysis in the lived, embodied experience of artistry itself. Together, the two educators bring a powerful combination of cultural criticism and practical industry knowledge to the classroom.
Their collaboration also reflects something meaningful about Howard’s broader vision. By bringing together African Studies and Fine Arts under one course, the university is modeling exactly the kind of cross-disciplinary thinking that the modern creative economy demands. Students are not being trained to think in silos — they are being equipped to see culture as a whole system.
How Howard University’s Hip Hop Studies Program Is Expanding Academic Commitment to the Culture
This new course does not exist in isolation. It builds on Howard’s growing commitment to hip hop as a legitimate and vital area of academic study. The university launched its Hip Hop Studies minor in Spring 2025, enabling students across multiple schools to study hip hop’s history, influence, and ongoing relevance across disciplines. That minor laid the groundwork for exactly this kind of bold, culture-forward course offering.
The partnership with the Warner Music Blavatnik Center for Music Business also signals that Howard is actively expanding its music and media ecosystem beyond the classroom. By connecting students to industry infrastructure, the university is creating pathways that allow young creatives and business minds to enter the music industry with both cultural fluency and strategic acumen. That combination is increasingly rare, and increasingly necessary.
Ultimately, what Howard is doing with this Cardi B-inspired course is something that goes far beyond one artist or one album. By centering Black women’s artistry, labor, and cultural impact in a serious academic setting, the university is affirming that the stories told through hip hop — and the business decisions behind them — deserve the same scholarly attention as any other cultural force. And for a generation of students who grew up with this music, that validation matters deeply.
