A University in Toronto introduces courses on Drake and The Weeknd

Sign up to Roisin O’Connor’s free weekly newsletter Now Hear This for the inside track on all things music Get our Now Hear This email for free Get our Now Hear This email for free SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Taught by Ryerson University’s music professor in residence, Dalton Higgins, the course titled “Deconstructing Drake & The Weeknd” will study both artists’ respective careers and lyrics. Describing why he chose to introduce this course, Higgins told Now Toronto: “On the US college and university scene there are all kinds of courses being taught about rock, folk, pop artists like Miley Cyrus, Lady Gaga, Bruce Springsteen – so why shouldn’t there be a course about Drake and the Weeknd right here in Toronto?” He added: “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.” The scholar also pointed out that many Ivy League universities including Harvard and Cornell “have fully embraced hip-hop education, so we can do the same here”. Drake and The Weeknd are known as two of Canada’s most influential music artists, and Higgins believes that “it’s overdue for them to be canonised academically”. “Remember, they both blew up despite being products of a local Canadian music scene that does very little to foster the growth of its Black music practitioners.” The professor wrote a book about Drake in 2012 titled Far From Over.