If you've ever wanted to study the reasons behind Drake and The Weeknd's successes, then you're in luck. X University (formerly known as Ryerson University), located in Toronto, is set to offer a class on the pair called Deconstructing Drake and The Weekend, which is set to begin in early 2022. The course will be taught as part of X University's RTA 950: Selected Topics In Media.
The pair are two of the biggest musicians in the world, with their music reaching far beyond their home country. However, Canada's impact on the global musical landscape isn't as widely recognised as other countries, but this course is attempting to change that.
The class will be taught by journalist and scholar Dalton Higgins, who also serves as a music professor-in-residence at the university. He says he was inspired to create the course after seeing the rise of courses related to hip-hop being taught in the US.
He told Now Toronto, “On American college campuses, there are easily more than 300 hip-hop courses being taught about artists like JAY-Z, Outkast, Beyoncé (there are a lot of Beyoncé courses). Many Ivy League universities including Harvard and Cornell, have fully embraced hip-hop education, so we can do the same here."
The course will look at the reasons that Drake and The Weeknd stood out in Canada and beyond, despite, as he puts it, "being products of a local Canadian music scene that does very little to foster the growth of its Black music practitioners." Dalton's looking forward to unpacking their success with his students, saying that he expects "students will ask tough questions about their music, race, class, subject matter, music production, lyrics.”
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Dalton is an expert on hip-hop culture, lecturing on the topic at colleges throughout his career, as well as writing a biography on Drake back in 2012 called Far From Over. If you're up for a trip to Toronto, this seems like one hell of a way to learn more about two of Canada's most successful musical exports.
