The influence and reach of hip hop has no boundaries. Another level of the art form has been breached by none other than Bun B of the influential rap duo UGK, but not for his Grammy nominated flow….his intellectual insight.

Bernard “Bun B” Freeman recently finished up a stint as a guest lecturer at Rice University. He worked with Professor Anthony Pinn at the university on a class. The course was about religion and hip hop. The popularity and buzz generated by the two forced them to consider another way to bring their insight and course work to the masses.

Taking advantage of the best distribution medium on the planet, Bun B and Professor Pinn will make and extension of their course available online through Rice University’s Center for Digital Learning and Scholarship.

The course is free to all those that want to attend and will run for 6 weeks using a variety of mediums to convey their messages including videos, readings, music, images, stories and behind-the-scenes insider perspective.

About this Course

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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.

We will start our time together with some basic assumptions, the most important being a willingness to think about Hip Hop and religion as cultures that wrestle with the huge questions of our existence:  Who are we?  Why are we?  Where are we? You will also need to be open to the possibility of Hip Hop as a language through which these complex and religious questions are presented, explored, and interpreted.

As this course unfolds, we’ll look closely into the relationship between Hip Hop culture and religion. We will explore the ways in which Hip Hop culture discusses and provides life meaning in complex ways through  (1) a discussion of the history and content of rap music; (2) an examination of religion in rap music; (3) an exploration of the religious sensibilities of rap artists; and (4) a discussion of the implications of the connection between rap and religion.

Bun B said, “This course gave me the opportunity to let people see a side of hip-hop that isn’t always discussed. We’ve started a conversation that cannot end until people have a better understanding of who we are and what we do.”

If you are interested in learning more about this course or want to take it yourself, you can sign up or find out more here.

SOUND OFF: What do you think about Professor Bun B teaching a course on religion and hip hop?