Hip-hop goes from the corner to the classroom

Bernard Hermon has long been a hip-hop fan.

So when he had the chance to register for Professor Emmett Price's "Hip Hop Culture" course, the Brandeis junior jumped at the opportunity.

"I thought the course would be very elementary," admits Harmon. "I thought we would discuss things that I already knew about the music - but that wasn't the case."

The course melds history, sociology, media deconstruction and politics to explore the evolution and development of hip-hop culture, beginning in the 1950s and '60s. Price developed the course in 2000 as a post-doctoral fellow at Washington University in St. Louis, Mo.

"It's really important for there to be discourse …