SJSU's best class

As a rap music fan, I've known the genre is problematic — but until I took MCOM 100: Media Law & Ethics, I didn't realize it was almost illegal.

What hooked me was the teacher, who by all outward appearances looked, well, boring.

And certainly nothing like a person with anything interesting to reveal about the world's most profane art form.

How wrong I was.

She walked us through case after case of hip-hop's rap sheet, so to speak, articulating countless copyright and sampling lawsuits that have plagued generations of artists.

It turned listening to "Baby Got Back," the lewd, infectious anthem by Sir Mix-a-Lot, into an intellectual pursuit.

The funny thing is, I failed the class the first time around. 

Why? Bad teacher. 

Worse student.

Then, in the summer, I took it with the aforementioned amazing professor and left with an A.

It takes a lot to convince a 20-year-old that summer school is fun.

But listening to rap, judiciously dissecting its troubles and analyzing the ethics of creativity were too good to pass up.

It also made me realize why some of my favorite rap stars, including the flowerchild-styled trio De La Soul, had disappeared into obscurity and struggled to make a living.

They didn't own their master recordings.

Looking back, the class was especially fascinating because hip-hop wasn't the dominant pop music form that it is today.

The disrespect that artists endured was quite jarring and made me understand their financial struggles on an entirely new level.

And that's all thanks to the little old lady with a secretly hip way of looking at the world.