A Hip-Hop Artist Designs His Own Major

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At 25, bassist Sean McPherson is serious about hip-hop, but he's also serious about education—and not just his own. His band, Heiruspecs, is starting a college scholarship for students at its old high school. His inspiration? "That's definitely college talking," he said, "that's African American studies talking."

As McPherson describes it, the African American studies program at the University of Minnesota is one in which people look out for each other. And the professors constantly ask themselves if they're doing enough for the community.

An Individualized Major

But an African American studies major wasn't enough for McPherson. His brand-new diploma is in a major he designed himself, one that combines African American studies with cultural studies and music. He did so because he had a "variety of interests and wanted to pursue all of them seriously." There was another advantage to shaping his own education: it made the university feel like a smaller place. "I had really heartfelt relationships with my advisors," said McPherson. "I was really being guided and advised in a way that can be tough at a big university."

An individualized, or self-designed, major isn't for everyone. McPherson warned that students should be prepared for plenty of skepticism when people don't understand their major or why they've chosen it. But that's also one of the best things about taking this independent path. "You get a lot of real-life experience in persuasion," said McPherson. And he should know: as a white man in African American studies, he has raised more than a few eyebrows.

Like other students with self-designed majors, McPherson exercised his persuasive powers in a major proposal, a paper that defined his major and mapped out his course work. He found it a huge challenge. "That type of analysis requires a lot of faith in yourself and faith that you're picking what's right for you," he said.

The Education of a Musician

Asked why his major was right for him, McPherson flashed back to his band's big break—a national tour. Still in college, he faced a tough decision. Ultimately, McPherson chose to hit the road with the band, and for three years he lived the life of a professional musician.

Driving around the country in a van gave McPherson time to think about what was missing from his life. He realized that he didn't know as much about African Americans as he'd like to, even though he played hip-hop in a multiracial group. He wanted "a deeper knowledge of where the music comes from." He also realized that there were gaps in his mastery of music, such as jazz theory and jazz arranging.

Cultural studies—a rare major focused on all sorts of cultural objects and their meanings, with special attention to race, class, and gender—caught McPherson’s eye as he browsed through the course catalog. He felt he just had to know what was behind course titles like Music as Discourse, Homophobia and the Modern Black Man, and The Rhetoric of Everyday Life. He sees cultural studies as the glue that held his unique major together. It taught him that, as he put it, "anything can be read; anything can be criticized and understood." He’s talking about much more than books. "Everything" really does include every thing, from blogs to shopping malls to Coke cans.

Take It Away

What's next for McPherson? Now that he's graduated, he has time for another tour. He takes with him much more than a degree; he takes a clear idea of the way he wants to live his life, something he realized when he was writing his major proposal. "I want to take fully informed, positive, and educated actions, whether they're musical, or political, or job-related," he said. "I want to be aware of the history; I want to be aware of the societal climate."

Find out how McPherson handled being a student and a professional musician at the same time in A Hip-Hop Artist Says Yes to College.