A professor at Georgia Regents University is now putting Kendrick Lamar’s album “Good Kid, M.A.A.D. City” on a shelf with James Joyce’s “Dubliners” and the poetry of Gwendolyn Brooks.

Adam Diehl, who is teaching the English composition course “Good Kids, Mad Cities” for the first time this semester, said Lamar’s work achieves the same level of artistry as other works of literature and social commentary studied in the class like James Joyce’s short stories, Gwendolyn Brooks’ poems and John Singleton’s Academy Award-nominated film “Boyz n the Hood.”

Homework can include listening to songs by various artists and analyzing some aspect of their lyrics. Other assignments have students comparing songs from “Good Kid, M.A.A.D. City” to stories from “Dubliners.”

“I really didn’t think I was going to be able to do that,” Lauren Ringel, a sophomore history major, said of the latter. “But it’s a lot easier than you think.”

Class discussions are no-holds barred as students discuss everything from serious social issues to pop culture. “Oh my gracious, the class is so much fun,” Ringel said. “Class actually passes way too fast.”

Additionally, discussing songs about everything from sexual abuse to gang violence can be “eye-opening” for students living in the quiet college town of Augusta, Georgia, said Jacquese Burton, a freshman nursing student.

“(Here) we don’t have all that going on. I grew up in Detroit, where that was something that happened every day, but being here so long you kind of forget about that happening, so it brought back to reality all those different things, the sensitive subjects that are swept under the rug,” she said.

Patrick Frits, a junior sociology and criminal justice major, said class discussions can also feature Diehl breaking out into rap — and he’s “really good,” Frits said. “He’s like a quirky, Caucasian male and so it’s just really funny to see him break down into a rap, but he knows it, ‘cause he’s listened to this stuff for two, three years now trying to get it right.”

Diehl started planning the course last spring, after the curriculum of the school was changed to make the second semester freshman composition course topics-based rather than literature-based.

“It allows these professors to do something outside the box,” he said. “Every professor’s doing something interesting.”

Diehl said he designed the course around Lamar’s album so that students could learn about more than English composition. Whether someone is born into gang violence or racism, he said, people’s beliefs are strongly influenced by their upbringings and he wants his students to start questioning their own ingrained ideas.

“I really want people to question what are you living for, why you treat people the way you do, why do you view people the way that you do,” he said.

He added the faculty and administration have been supportive of his idea for the class since day one. Diehl hopes to teach the course again in future semesters, and said he’s coming up with new ideas for the class even as the semester flies by.

“It’s going so quickly,” he said. “We’re in the third week of class and it feels like I’m on the Millennium Falcon going into hyperspace.”

But there is the possibility that this semester could get even more exciting for Diehl and his students. Lamar will perform at the ONE Musicfest in Atlanta on Saturday, and Frits has been in touch with Lamar’s agent trying to get the rapper to visit the class. Diehl said he would be thrilled if Lamar made an appearance, but isn’t counting on the artist finding time in his busy schedule.

But there is an incentive for trying to get in touch with Lamar. “Professor Adam said, ‘If anybody gets Kendrick Lamar to class, you get an A,’” said Frits.

Correction: In the Sept. 11 article, “Poetic justice: Georgia Regents University professor teaches Kendrick Lamar in English course,” Patrick Frits name was spelled wrong on the last reference. The Daily Orange regrets this error. 

Published on September 11, 2014 at 12:01 am

Contact Maggie: mmcregan@syr.edu