Rapper Bun B will teach a free online religion and Hip-Hop culture course through Rice University
- By Alison Lesley --
- 04 Feb 2015 --
Bun B has done many collaborations, but this one is in an online classroom, not in the studio.
This spring, Rapper Bun B will be teaching an online religion and Hip-Hop culture course at no cost.
This comes after teaching the course on campus at Rice University in Texas for the past four years.
Bun B of UGK is teaching a class for Rice on the Intersection of Hip-Hop and Religion, I am way more interested in this than I should be
— Kevin Johnson (@KJBirdDesign) February 4, 2015
In conjunction with Religious Studies Professor Anthony Pinn, Bun B unveils a side of hip-hop that is a rarely discussed, but important conversation for Bun B to develop “a better understanding of who we are and what we do.”
Pinn explains the reason for the expansion to online classes.
“Our classroom course at Rice went so well that people off campus were contacting us and asking us about the course and how they could take it. Working with Bun in the classroom, it became clear that there were ways of learning and teaching that we hadn’t tapped. The MOOC [massive open online course] gave us a way to be even more creative and innovative in terms of how we link the rest of world with the cultural richness and diversity of Houston to get information across.”
Enrollment is now open for the class that begins March 24. The course description begins: “What is religion? What is Hip-Hop? Are they the same thing? Do they overlap? Over six weeks we’ll get a sense of how some individuals answer these questions, and you’ll get the tools you need to explore these questions for yourselves.”
Bun B, a Texas native, was part of the duo UGK. After the group ended, he released his debut solo album in 2005, which peaked at number 6 on the American Billboard 200 chart and number 1 on the Top R&B/Hip Hop Albums chart.
Last year we asked, “Can religion and hip hop co-exist?”