Deconstructing Drake and The Weeknd is the title for a brand new course being offered next year at X (formerly Ryerson) University.
The course instructor and co-producer is Dalton Higgins, a leading Toronto-based publicist, author, event producer, co-host of the ‘Black Tea’ podcast, journalist and X University’s Music-Professional on Residence.
Higgins will be covering a range of topics including; how Drake and The Weeknd got where they are, their business and entrepreneurial relations, the communities that raised them and social media’s impact along the way.
When speaking of instructing the new hip-hop and R&B course, Higgins said it is, “a match-made in heaven.”
He has been documenting hip-hop, R&B and popular culture for two decades, starting his journalistic career at The Source (revered to as the hip-hop bible). He’s written numerous books about hip-hop, including best-selling Far From Over: The Music and Life of Drake.
When Higgins joined X University in December of 2020, his initial motivation was to, “get more electronic-based music, energies into the building.”
Creativity was asked of Higgins and that meant infusing the curriculum with hip-hop.
American Universities Exemplar Of Embracement
“It’s not a new thing, its a new thing to Canada,” said Higgins.
“In the U.S., there are hip-hop courses at most major universities,” Higgins said. “The hip-hop curriculum is even embraced by Ivy League schools. Harvard has a hip-hop archive and a fellowship called Nas.”
You can find chapters in books dedicated to hip-hop that are taught in Canada, that Higgins himself has contributed to. However, the only courses predicated on artists fall into the folk, country or rock n’ roll categories.
Why is Canada lacking so far behind the United States?
“In the American mainstream they celebrate diversity, they reward diversity, and they pay diversity, that is the big difference,” said Higgins.
Matching Interest With Academia
Higgins points no further than 6ixbuzzTV’s audience to prove Toronto’s hip-hop and R&B potency among the multicultural youth in Toronto. He says that energy needs to translate to academia.
“A lot of us didn’t grow up on rock n’ roll, beer and ice-hockey. There other things we honour and celebrate and teach,” said Higgins.
Although Toronto is a multicultural oasis and has a documented growth of hip-hop culture, Higgins says it’s hard to see the representation at educational institutions.
“If we as educators are doing our best to represent music realities, demographic realities that means you have to represent hip-hop in the curriculum.”
Students can register for RTA 950: Deconstructing Drake & The Weeknd for the winter term.