The first Hip Hop undergrad degree is a deep dive into the genre’s technological history

Since celebrating its 50th anniversary in 2023 and with more than its share of inclusion across academia, there has still never been a full performance degree program focused entirely on Hip Hop. At the Peabody Institute, the oldest conservatory in the country and a division of Johns Hopkins University, students can now officially earn a Bachelor of Music in Hip Hop.

The first of its kind anywhere in the U.S., the performance-focused undergraduate degree program has producer, pianist, and professor Wendel Patrick to thank for its creation and development. Serving as the program’s department head, Patrick says he’d started thinking about the possibilities of a degree program back in 2020, but the idea saw its earliest beginnings in 2016 when he was first invited to teach at Peabody. “A student had reached out to a faculty member asking if hip hop could be represented, and this faculty member was aware of my work,” he explained. “And so I said, ‘well, what do you want me to teach?’ And they said, ‘whatever you want.’” This led to the creation of Hip Hop Music Production: History and Practice, a hip hop history course from the lens of the producer. “I really wanted to have a class that focused historically on hip hop, but also spoke to the sonic musical component behind the words and how that's evolved over time as far as equipment and that sort of thing.”

Over the years, Patrick says his course has welcomed Hip Hop icons like Rakim, Hank Shocklee of the legendary Bomb Squad and Lupe Fiasco as guest speakers. As it continued to grow in popularity, its students would form a Hip Hop ensemble; starting with 5 students before growing to over 20 with more vying for a spot in it. Being a performance degree program means its most important measure of success involves taking its lessons from the classroom to the stage and within that, students can choose one of four majors: rap, turntablist, beatboxer, or producer. “Essentially what we're producing is music that will then be performed live, so with all the performance elements, I really wanted it to be properly represented,” he said. “You’d study with prominent artists in those particular realms of the genre and discipline in the same way that you would come to Peabody and study jazz piano or opera or violin, so these would be represented as individual instruments that you would specialize in and you would be taught by as a specialist.”

Like much of the Hip Hop focused learning across academia, the genre’s history, social impact, and cultural context will also be explored. For Patrick, who also noted the rise of beat-making and production classes across the U.S., developing a program that paired both theory and practical learning was crucial. “You often hear people say ‘hip hop came from nothing’ and while I understand what that means, I think a lot of times people say ‘nothing’ because it didn't start with a lot of money. But that's not nothing. Something that comes out of human experience in life is very much something. And I think that that context is important.”

In the program, these ideas won’t be treated as separate entities, either. By looking at music theory and the genre’s sonic evolution in the context of technology, and how one has impacted the others over the years, there’s plenty of overlap. “Any kind of rhyme scheme or production technique that you have now grew out of something that came before,” he explained. “I think there's a hugely technical side, but learning about that technical side is going to be far more impactful if you know where that technique came from.” Students will have access to a range of equipment to support their training, including some from different eras with limitations much different from today’s DAWs.

“A lot of these hit records that were made in the early 90s or late 80s were made on machines that had 2.5 seconds of sampling time and then suddenly you had the SP-1200 that had 10 seconds. That's like an entire world just opened up to you,” he explained, adding that some assignments in his current course call for students to create with some of these limitations in mind. “The SP-1200 doesn't have an undo button, so if you don't chop that sample just right, you might not get it exactly the same again. So that forces you to think in a completely different manner and you really open up students' minds when they start using a machine like that.”

Students can also expect to explore the work of iconic artists and producers, their impact, and how that work fits into their technical performance skills. “I would say an obvious one is J Dilla just because of what he did in terms of reframing and reshaping the way that, not just hip-hop musicians, but musicians in general think about rhythm, and the fluidity and flexibility of rhythm,” he said. “I can’t think of anyone who has a drum production style that’s had that much of an impact on how live drummers drum.” Despite its focus on an art form that changes as quickly as Hip Hop often does, Patrick says the program’s roots will be the genre’s technical fundamentals, preparing students for anything that comes their way. “I want the program to be skill-based and in order to become skilled at something, you have to be able to problem solve, you have to be able to look at things from multiple angles.”

With classes slated to start in fall of 2025, Patrick says they are currently accepting applications. You can learn more about the program here, and prospective students can apply and audition to enroll here.