Usually when a rap artist comes out with a new album, it’s released by a record label as part of their career as an entertainer. For Dr. A.D. Carson, a professor of hip-hop at the University of Virginia, his latest album – “Owning My Masters (Mastered): The Rhetorics of Rhymes & Revolutions” – represents a capstone in his academic career.
Published and released in October 2024 by University of Michigan Press, the album and digital archive features two volumes of hip-hop music, an annotated timeline, several videos and a digital book. The album – originally submitted to Clemson University in South Carolina as Carson’s doctoral dissertation – has been mastered. In the following interview with The Conversation U.S., Carson explains the significance of the project and what it means for hip-hop in the world of academe.
