11/10/2025
“Hip-Hop isn’t just expression — it’s theory.”
That’s the message from Dr. A.D. Carson—award-winning artist, educator, and the nation’s only tenured professor of hip-hop at the University of Virginia—in his recent NBC29 feature spotlighting his upcoming memoir, Being Dope: Hip-Hop and Theory through Mix-Tape Memoir (Oxford University Press, out Nov. 19).
Airing across NBC29’s network of more than 250,000 monthly viewers and readers throughout Central Virginia, the segment captures Dr. Carson’s reflection on how rap functions as both creative expression and academic theory—bridging worlds that rarely speak the same language.
Through stories, lyrics, essays, and interviews, Dr. Carson shares how hip-hop continues to be a space where “the unsayable gets said aloud”—challenging cultural assumptions and expanding how knowledge, art, and power intersect.
Watch the full NBC29 feature: https://www.29news.com/2025/10/31/uva-hip-hop-professor-shares-his-journey-with-music-academia-memoir/
Preorder Being Dope:https://global.oup.com/academic/product/being-dope-9780197772669
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