It’s one thing to learn how to make music like Dr. Dre. But it’s another to learn how to get money like him. The Institute of Hip-Hop Entrepreneurship hopes to teach the latter.
Created by Little Giant Branding agency co-founder Tayib Smith [pictured], the Institute of Hip-Hop Entrepreneurship will be a nine week program offering weekend courses where students will be learning from and working alongside entrepreneurs, musicians and technologists, who will teach courses infused with their own experiences. No lectures, no traditional tests.
Instead of working towards getting a good grade, students will be molded into being able to pitch their business ideas to investors. The school will be geared towards people who have the ambition to succeed, but come from underserved communities.
CNN reports that Smith is still in the early stages of getting the program running, but is expecting the first class of 36 students to be ready by this fall. The institute was recently awarded a grant of $308,000 by the Knight Foundation, which specializes in funding innovative concepts designed to improve underserved communities.
IHHE is the latest effort where Hip-Hop related businessmen are using education to improve lives. Dr. Dre and Jimmy Iovine made headlines for founding an academy named after them at the University of Southern California that will push students into careers in technology and business. Sean “Diddy” Combs also entered the education arena recently by announcing that he was opening a charter school in Harlem.
Photo: Tayib Smith/Twitter
