Howard University now offers a course on Cardi B, inspired by her latest album 

by Mildred Europa Taylor, Face2FaceAfrica.com

Howard University has launched a new course inspired by Cardi B and her sophomore album Am I the Drama?, examining the art, production, and marketing strategies behind the album.

The course, developed in partnership with the Warner Music Blavatnik Center for Music Business, will enable Howard to continue bridging culture and curriculum, with students understanding in real time the impact of artistry and strategy in the present music industry, according to a report shared by HBCU Buzz.

The three-credit course is titled “The Cardi B: Am I the Drama? The Art, Production, Marketing, and Cultural Impact” and will debut in Fall 2026. Cardi B’s name being attached to the course doesn’t mean everything would be about the rap superstar.

Howard said the class will “bridge music, business, marketing, media, gender studies, production, and cultural theory,” letting Cardi B be at the center of a larger academic conversation.

Students will deeply understand how the modern music industry operates, including learning how artists build their campaigns, how they manage public attention, and how controversy becomes part of narrative formation.

Dr. Msia Kibona Clark, associate professor of African Studies and director of the Hip Hop Studies minor, alongside Professor Pat Parks, theatre arts administration coordinator in the Chadwick A. Boseman College of Fine Arts, will teach the class. 

“Together, they plan to examine live performance and cultural production through a hip hop feminist lens, using Cardi B’s career to open discussions about respectability politics, misogynoir, agency, visibility, and the policing of Black womanhood,” Howard said.

In a time where only making music is no longer enough, this Howard initiative is very important. Already, the university’s music and media ecosystem has been expanding its academic commitment to hip hop through the Hip Hop Studies minor and related industry partnerships. The minor launched in Spring 2025 to enable students across multiple schools to “study hip hop’s history, influence, and ongoing relevance across disciplines.”