BREAKING NEWS: US varsity offers African-American course on Nicki Minaj

The University of California, Berkeley, USA has said it will offer an academic course on the US-based Trinidadian rapper, Onika Tanya Maraj-Petty popularly known as Nicki Minaj.

The institution will offer African-American studies about Minaj during the Spring 2023 semester, according to a tweet made last week by ProfessorPeace And Love El Henson.

According to the university’s academic guide, the class titled, ‘Nicki Minaj: The Black Barbie Femmecee & Hip Hop Feminisms’ will include roughly 90-minute lectures on Tuesdays and Thursdays next year.

Reacting to the tweet, the renowned rapper said, “I’d love to stop by.” And she retweeted a separate post about the news with a snapping gif.

Minaj is the latest rapper to be the subject of a college course. In 2014, Georgia Regents University offered an English Composition class centred around Kendrick Lamar, according to USA Today.

Lamar’s lyrics from his 2012 album, “good kid, m.A.A.d. city,” was juxtaposed with the writings of James Baldwin, James Joyce, Gwendolyn Brooks and the script for the 1991 film, “Boyz in the Hood.”

Georgetown University introduced a course centred around Jay-Z in 2011, according to The Washington Post. Michael Eric Dyson taught the course, titled “Sociology of Hip-Hop: Jay-Z.”

At the time, Dyson said, “We look at his incredible body of work, we look at his own understanding of his work, we look at others who reflect upon him, and then we ask the students to engage in critical analysis of Jay-Z himself.”

The Minaj course will begin on January 17 and run until May 5, 2023.