Comedic living legend Dave Chappelle is coming to a curriculum near you! The 49-year-old funnyman is set to have a course taught in his name at Concordia University in Montreal, Canada this fall 2023. But the class will be no easy “A” — students will reportedly examine the link between his skits and their relationship with music.
Who could forget that one episode of “Chappelle’s Show” when the actor was dancing in the club to a fictional, newly released Tupac track titled “I Wrote This Song In ’94”? As the D.C. native and others enjoyed the tune, they couldn’t help but notice the lyrics mentioned things that took place after the “Hail Mary” rapper’s passing, such as references to Slim Shady and the Afghanistan bombings. The bit was a clever play at how many felt Pac’s music was ahead of its time — so much so that as they danced to his fictitious posthumous release, it spoke of real-time events happening at the venue.
“I’m writing my syllabus right now and from what Dave and the community around him gave me. I’m gonna kind of celebrate that at the 50th anniversary of hip hop as a community,” Yassin “Narcy” Alsalma, the professor set to teach the course, said in an article Vibe published on Tuesday (May 9). “So we’re gonna go through ‘The Chappelle Show.’ We’re gonna watch some of his specials,” he said before mentioning he has plans to do the same with other Black entertainers.
Alsalma explained wanting to “talk about just the juxtaposition of the responsibility of comedy in music, and then the consumption of Black performance and what does that mean in North America.” The professor noted that the Half Baked actor is not expected to be present at any point, but it would be great if he could attend: “I’m gonna ask people from the community, the friends of mine that I made in that community, to possibly come and maybe we’ll get Dave. Maybe Dave will come, maybe he won’t, but that’s not really why I’m doing it.” If finalized by the university, the course will begin in September.