激情快播

Updated Spring 2022 | Fall 2020 触听By Nicole Dudenhoefer ’17

Hip-Hop lovers know at the heart of the genre is hustle, which is essential to any great business. So for C. Keith Harrison, the DeVos Sport Business Management Graduate Program chief academic officer, associate unit head and professor, it was only natural to develop courses around the culture and music he grew up with in Southern California.

Within the past year, Harrison has launched three new graduate and undergraduate courses, including one for DeVos students, centered around the business of hip-hop innovation and entrepreneurship. Through different case studies, students will examine products such as Dr. Dre鈥檚 Beats and the success of millionaires such as Diddy to understand how hip-hop has grown from an underground expression into a global influence. 激情快播 now also offerers a.

Where did you get the idea for these courses?
The courses grew out of my passion for education, hip-hop and sport. They also grew out of a class I co-teach at the undergrad level (The Role of Innovation and Entrepreneurship in Sport and Entertainment) with Reggie Saunders, who is the senior director of global entertainment marketing at Jordan Brand and has been an adjunct here for several years.

We lead that course with business and use hip-hop as a reference point. With these newer courses (a graduate and undergraduate version on The Business of Hip-Hop Innovation and Entrepreneurship and the DeVos program graduate course The Business of Hip-Hop Innovation and Entrepreneurship: Applications to Sport Business Management), we鈥檙e looking to expand on that.

Do students have different experiences in each of these courses?
I鈥檓 a big proponent of not聽teaching the same material in different聽courses because聽if students聽go聽into the grad program it becomes the 13th聽grade,聽they鈥檝e already had it.聽So聽I design them differently by framing the content with different case studies and diverse aspects of hip-hop culture.聽With the聽DeVos graduate version,聽we look more at how hip-hop applies to sport, including聽Ice Cube鈥檚 Big3聽basketball league. In each course there are discussion posts based on required readings, some of the courses require movie or hip-hop text analyses.

In the graduate courses, there is a final project that will require students to create an action plan for a hip-hop sporting event for the Orlando Magic or Orlando City Soccer. Students will organize the night based on four principles: to position hip-hop culture night, activate it with brands that align with hip-hop, engage fans, and use data analytics to predict success. This project gives students a chance to be hands-on with something they can execute and talk about in job or grad school interviews.

You鈥檙e on sabbatical for the fall semester as a Nasir Jones Hiphop Fellow at the Hutchins Center for African & African American Research at Harvard. How will this experience influence these courses?
I鈥檓 going into one of the most intellectual academic environments, historically, so I鈥檒l be learning from the W.E.B. Du Bois Research Institute and alums from the Hutchins Center.

I鈥檒l be developing content for a future course that examines the parallels in hip-hop culture between Nas and Nipsey Hussle in terms of innovation and entrepreneurship. I鈥檒l also be looking into artists and rappers across generations, and there will be a section on women in hip-hop, from Queen Latifah to MC Lyte to Cardi B and so on.

Sabbatical is a time to refresh and regroup, and I鈥檓 very grateful to 激情快播 and the College of Business for their support. Being in a new environment and just having some time to think and write is exciting. Quite frankly, Harvard has聽the preeminent department of African and African American studies, so it鈥檒l be great to have this fellowship to enhance what I do at 激情快播 when I鈥檓 back to teaching and researching in the spring.

Why is it important that 激情快播 offers business courses focused on hip-hop?
This is another impactful way to teach students business through one of the greatest art forms, which evolved from two turntables and a microphone to billion-dollar industries. To me, it鈥檚 the intersection of diversity and innovation. Hip-hop culture and personalities are major global influencers, and any business school should be studying that.

What makes hip-hop such an influential force in business?
Hip-hop has always been about the audience making artists relevant and is a great case study for sport and other entertainment industries. It goes back to 鈥淭hrow your hands in the air, and wave 鈥檈m like you just don鈥檛 care.鈥� It鈥檚 gone from being underground to being marginalized to crossing over to the mainstream to becoming hypercommercialized.

What are some things students will learn in these courses?
Students will learn the history of hip-hop 鈥� that it was a cultural expression that has inadvertently become big business. Hip-hop references general business principles. An example is the growth of entrepreneurship. In my era of hip-hop, cassette tapes were sold out of a car. Another example is looking at royalties. In the 鈥�90s, Master P was the first artist to keep 85 percent of his sales and that was unheard of at the time.

How have these courses adapted during the pandemic?听听
I designed these courses in hybrid and online formats, which made it really seamless to transition them to a remote learning. One of the positive things [about the remote modality] is it鈥檚 allowed me to bring in other people and big-time influencers, from Jordan Brand to Roc Nation, as guest speakers. Reggie was able to聽be more involved with the DeVos graduate course over the summer聽because he could Zoom in.

As we鈥檙e seeing a movement for social justice and equity for Black people, how does hip-hop鈥檚 hypercommercialized industry play a role in that?
In the beginning hip-hop was really stigmatized, but for聽people that are more aware it鈥檚 not a negative thing. Now, all聽we聽have to do is turn on the TV for an hour and watch the commercials and you鈥檒l see聽mainstream,聽corporate America has grabbed聽hip-hop and taken it by the horns, from dancing and body language to slang and diction 鈥� you can see hip-hop鈥檚 influence聽and how it has permeated popular culture.

I love the quote by Jalen Rose, ESPN correspondent and former NBA player, 鈥淚 wish America loved Black people the way they love black culture.鈥�

So聽despite this influence, we鈥檙e still having these racial injustices [across the country] and African American stereotypes in marketing, such as Aunt Jemima and Uncle Ben. But let鈥檚 look at what Master P just did by launching Uncle P鈥檚, which includes pancake mix, rice syrup and oatmeal, and the聽profits will serve Black communities. He flipped that to replace imagery that鈥檚 been perceived as negative and that鈥檚 what hip-hop does, it flips things and the narrative of Black culture for the broader society. And we鈥檙e going to see more of that.

Black culture and the culture of hip-hop will be less stigmatized as things go on, and now we know in the movement post the life of George Floyd, companies are budgeting initiatives for diversity, inclusion and equity issues.

As聽Jimmy聽Iovine聽and聽Dr. Dre聽recently said,聽鈥淎frican聽American/Black culture is one of the most underutilized, under resourced and underappreciated assets that America has聽鈥� and it still hasn鈥檛 been taken to its full potential.鈥� We鈥檙e just scratching the surface, and institutionalizing hip-hop culture through higher education, business and intellectual curriculum is one innovative way to value this powerful culture that has evolved in America over time.