Spring 2027

Hip-hop and Contemporary American Society

Examines the aesthetic and political evolution of hip-hop culture and its relationship to contemporary social issues, including US race relations and global popular culture.

offering recorded3 credits
Recorded instructors · Spring 2027 Alexander Shashko4.8/5

Summary

1 / 6

Past student reviews · Alexander Shashko

The course required extensive reading to succeed, with 75% of the grade determined by three papers that relied heavily on that material.

What you’ll be able to do

  • Describe the history of race relations in the United States through the story of hip-hop music.

  • Explain how hip-hop has radically transformed global popular culture.

  • Trace the origins of hip-hop from its origins to the present.

  • Describe the relationship between hip-hop and cultural and social history.

  • Build a foundation for civic engagement by recognizing different artistic and cultural perspectives and worldviews.

Source: UW Guide

Grade history

↗
average GPA
letter grades
A
AB
B
BC
C
D
F

All recorded terms · compare terms & instructors

Prerequisites

Course map

None

  • None
AFROAMER 154

This is a best-effort interpretation; check the catalog requirements above.

Prerequisite text tree
  • None

Professors

Spring 2027

Alexander Shashko

Adjusted rating
RMP difficulty
captured reviews
About this rating

Raw average: 4.87/5 from 202 quality ratings. The adjusted rating blends this with the UW review average (3.66/5), weighted as 20 additional ratings. Smaller samples stay closer to that average. Each captured review is counted once in the prior; this does not correct who chooses to leave a review.

For this course: 5.0/5 raw quality · 1.9/5 difficulty · 7 reviews

RMP profile ↗ · All captured review dates; profile matched by name.

Past student reviews · Alexander Shashko

Alexander Shashko taught the course with engaging, story-driven lectures that students found highly entertaining and informative. The workload included substantial reading, which was relevant but necessary to understand the material, and grades were primarily based on three papers that students described as interesting and not entirely difficult.

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2025: 3.96 GPA, 98.2% A/AB (n=221 letter grades); Fall 2025: 3.93 GPA, 98.1% A/AB (n=211 letter grades); Spring 2026: 3.97 GPA, 99.0% A/AB (n=195 letter grades).

Historical instructors & teaching patterns

ALEXANDER SHASHKO is recorded teaching in Spring 2016, Fall 2016, Spring 2017, Fall 2017, Spring 2018, Fall 2018, Spring 2019, Fall 2019, Spring 2020, Fall 2020, Fall 2021, Spring 2022, Fall 2022, Spring 2023, Fall 2023, Spring 2024, Fall 2024, Spring 2025, Fall 2025, Spring 2026. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

Calendar & sections

Spring 2027

Schedule loads here as you scroll.

SectionModeEnrolled / capacityWaitlist
LEC 001Classroom Instruction0 / 3000
DIS 301Classroom Instruction0 / 250
DIS 303Classroom Instruction0 / 250
DIS 306Classroom Instruction0 / 250
DIS 307Classroom Instruction0 / 250
DIS 308Classroom Instruction0 / 250
DIS 302Classroom Instruction0 / 250
DIS 304Classroom Instruction0 / 250
DIS 305Classroom Instruction0 / 250
DIS 309Classroom Instruction0 / 250
DIS 310Classroom Instruction0 / 250
DIS 311Classroom Instruction0 / 250
DIS 312Classroom Instruction0 / 250

Times are Central. Select a meeting for details; export includes recorded dates for the selected sections. Enrollment reflects scan time.

Meeting source records
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Student experience

the class

Past student reviews · Alexander Shashko

Alexander Shashko teaches hip-hop history as an engaging narrative, combining music listening with storytelling to keep students entertained and informed.

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2025: 3.96 GPA, 98.2% A/AB (n=221 letter grades); Fall 2025: 3.93 GPA, 98.1% A/AB (n=211 letter grades); Spring 2026: 3.97 GPA, 99.0% A/AB (n=195 letter grades).

difficulty & workload

Past student reviews · Alexander Shashko

The course required extensive reading to succeed, with 75% of the grade determined by three papers that relied heavily on that material.

Past student reviews · Alexander Shashko

One student described the 50-minute lectures as so engaging that time flew by, and they highly encouraged attending class.

Topics

  • Aesthetic and political evolution of hip-hop
  • Relationship to contemporary social issues
  • Origins of hip-hop to the present

Skills

  • Describing US race relations through hip-hop
  • Explaining hip-hop's transformation of global culture
  • Analyzing hip-hop's relationship to social history
  • Recognizing diverse artistic and cultural perspectives

Grades

Historical instructor

Spring 2027 · Projected

Before grades are released

– average GPA

Approximate 80% prediction interval

About this estimate

The course’s semester-average GPA, not an individual student’s grade. The center uses 5 same-season terms, weighted toward recent results.

The range uses the finite-sample 80th-percentile rank of absolute errors from earlier same-season forecasts. Each forecast uses only records from earlier terms. At least four forecasts are required; bounds are rounded outward and limited to 0–4. This is an empirical estimate: changing instructors or grading policies can reduce its coverage.

8 earlier forecasts · 0.12 GPA average error.

Grades over time

Through Spring 2027

More grade details Grade mix, volume & source data

Where this course fits relative to

Latest available grades · Spring 2026 · all course levels

GPA

Higher than % of other courses in this group.

Course GPAs · red marks this course’s range

letter grades

More recorded grades than % of other courses in this group.

Typical course in this group: letter grades.

About this comparison

1280 courses over the same term, each with at least 30 recorded letter grades. Cross-listed courses count once. GPA is not a measure of difficulty or teaching quality. The typical course is the median by recorded grade count; tied values are not counted as lower. Grade counts describe course scale, not unique students or typical section size.

Descriptions compare GPA with this group’s average: at least 0.20 higher or lower; otherwise close to average. Section size uses median recorded enrollment: small up to 30, mid-sized 31–99, large 100+. Lectures and discussion/lab sections are described separately.

Sources & history

UW–Madison

Catalog & offerings

Descriptions, prerequisites, and recorded course offerings.

Catalog observation history

Observations at scan time; dates do not imply when a catalog change took effect.

Download part 1
Selected offering source records
AFROAMER 154 · Spring 2027

Hip-Hop and Contemporary American Society

Recorded 2026-10-14
Raw records 
[
  {
    "run_id": "20261014T203208-0851c9a1",
    "semester": "1274",
    "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00",
    "offering_id": "1274:106:024341",
    "course_id": "AFROAMER 154",
    "course_uid": "course_51e651c9302ec44280d7f6f0",
    "term_id": "1274",
    "source_course_id": "024341",
    "source_subject_id": "106",
    "title": "Hip-Hop and Contemporary American Society",
    "credits_min": 3,
    "credits_max": 3,
    "typically_offered": "Fall, Spring"
  }
]
Rate My Professors

Student reviews

Original comments behind the course and instructor summaries.

Read original reviews
Download part 1
Madgrades

Grade history

Recorded grade distributions by term, section, and instructor.

Explore recorded grades
Dataset & model

Recorded 2026-10-14

View the dataset on Hugging Face
Model outputs & technical records
Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B
LLM outputs across runs
Download part 1
Full model traces

Recorded model configuration, reasoning, and tool conversations.

Download part 1
Model & dataset provenance 
{
  "model": "Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B",
  "model_revision": "1d4bf0f2ff6012fd82039f2fa52739d0dd7c60c0",
  "task_version": "17",
  "output_id": "c26e664a1f1f9739a64c1fecd296f0ef0d1414dbc63581fbcd09d0571ded888c",
  "requirements_status": "valid",
  "dataset_revision": "fc1811fa52e581ea57a35c0cf3343f8740a8ffbf",
  "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00"
}