?uestlove will focus on the concept of what it means for something to be called classic or seminal, as well as take a close look at the music, lyrics, production, business aspects and reception of the album, and try to provide a context as to why these albums have stood the test of time, according to Jason King, associate professor of recorded music and head of history and criticism at the Institute, who confirmed the course. Explains the associate professor:

"We wanted to bring ?uestlove in because we felt he should really be a professor; in a lot of ways he already is an informal, unofficial professor, not just in hip-hop but in music in general."

The class is expected to look at albums by Sly And The Family Stone ('Stand!', 'There's A Riot Goin' On'), Aretha Franklin ('Lady Soul'), Led Zeppelin ('IV'), Prince ('Dirty Mind'), Michael Jackson ('Off The Wall'), and The Beastie Boys ('Paul's Boutique'), among others.

The idea for the class came when an NPR intern wrote dismissivelly about Public Enemy's 'It Takes A Nation of Millions To Hold Us Back' as part of NPR's series asking interns to review "classic albums they'd never heard before".

?uestlove responded to te post by commenting that the intern's job should be to find out why classic records are considered as such by researching and uncovering the context in which they were first released.

That prompted Jaso King to reach out to both ?uestlove and Harry Weinger with the idea for the course at the NYU.