October 18, 2012 9:52

The Roots' ?uestlove to teach classic albums course at NYU

Syllabus to include LPs by Led Zeppelin, Prince and Beastie Boys.

Photo: PA

?uestlove, drummer for The Roots, and Harry Weinger, vice president of Universal Music Enterprises are set to teach a course named 'Classic Albums' at the Clive Davis Institute for Recorded Music at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, reports Billboard.

The course was inspired by a blog post by an intern at America's NPR, in which the writer took a dismissive stance on an album that's generally regarded as a classic: Public Enemy's 'It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back'. In the comments, ?uestlove wrote, "Your job is to find out why classic records are considered as such by researching and uncovering the context in which they were first released," The Clive Davis Institute's Jason King saw the comment and contacted ?uestlove to see if he would be interested in teaching the class.

"We wanted to bring [?uestlove] in because we felt he should really be a professor; in a lot of ways he already is an informal, unofficial professor, not just in hip-hop but in music in general," says King. "He's one of the smartest people in music, besides being a fantastic musician. We thought [this class] would speak to his strengths."

Albums expected to be on the syllabus include:

Sly And The Family Stone, 'Stand!' and 'There’s A Riot Goin’ On'
Aretha Franklin, 'Lady Soul'
Led Zeppelin, 'IV'
Prince, 'Dirty Mind'
Michael Jackson, 'Off The Wall'
The Beastie Boys, 'Paul’s Boutique'

That's Professor ?uesto RT @jeffrabhan: Word is that @questlove is coming to teach a course next semester @clivedavisinst on Classic Albums!
— Questo of The Roots (@questlove) October 16, 2012

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