Howard University's Cardi B Course: Hip-Hop Business 101

0:00On March 30th, Howard University just dropped a game-changer with a new three-credit class built around Cardi B's latest album success. Professor Jasmine Jazz, young teamed up with the Warner Music Blavotnik Center to create this interdisciplinary course on hip-hop business using the Bronx Rapper's No. 1 Billboard 200 debut as the Blueprint. That project moved over 200,000 units in its first week back in September 2025. The class dives into real-world strategies like marketing, branding, and cultural impacts straight from Cardi's playbook. She's out on a nationwide tour, packing sold out venues, and students get to break down her grassroots promotions in New York, fan engagement moves, and even how public legal drama fueled the album's story. Students and folks in the culture are buzzing because this isn't just theory. It's hands-on access to how superstars build empires. Young says it's about closing the gap between classroom lessons and street-level execution, validating hip-hop as serious scholarship and a global economy.

1:04Young calls it a cultural reset that's pushing music business and hip-hop education forward. She's the self-proclaimed hip-hop professor, and this course gives students the real playbook from one of the game's top players. This move shows universities sinking up with the culture's pulse, turning fresh case studies into career launch pads, improving hip-hop's lessons, shaped tomorrow's leaders.