Ja Rule Is Open to Teaching His Own Hip-Hop Course: 'Very Much Into That Stuff' (Exclusive)

The MC opened up to PEOPLE about his willingness to explore academia during TuneCore's 50 Years of Hip Hop event in New York City

Here's someone who will be "Always on Time" to class.

Speaking with PEOPLE at TuneCore's 50 Years of Hip Hop event in New York City Thursday night, Ja Rule revealed he's down to teach his own college course on hip-hop if the opportunity were to present itself.

"I would. I'd talk a little bit about music theory and crescendos and things like that, that people don't realize," Ja, 47, says. "Baritones in certain songs, tones of your voice that people don't realize bring out emotions in people and stuff like that — so yeah I would. I'm very much into that stuff."

Related:Ja Rule Says He Won't Be Involved in Fyre Festival Follow-Up: "I Know Nothing About It" (Exclusive)

Ja's comment comes as Lupe Fiasco, who recently cited him as his "favorite rapper," announced he was selected to be a Saybrook Fellow at Yale University for the fall. The announcement follows his introduction as a visiting professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) for the school's MLK Visiting Professor Program.

During a November interview with Andscape, Lupe, 40, spoke about his visiting professor role at MIT, and what it means to him.

"Of course, there have been many academics who are in one field and they use hip-hop in some ways, heuristically, to inform their field," Lupe told the outlet. "I imagined something that goes the other way: where hip-hop itself establishes dialogues and research questions, with the artists who do it as a profession create institutions that are hip-hop-focused. Not as in, 'I'm a part of a department that does world music, and then examines hip-hop as an example.' But rather, 'No, no, no: This whole institution is a hip-hop institution.'"

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Ja, who performed several of his biggest hits during the Thursday celebration at the 40/40 Club, has some history when it comes to taking on new courses. Back in 2021, he earned an online certification from Harvard Business School for its Entrepreneurship Essentials program, per CBS.

The four-week program, according to Ja's certificate that he posted to Twitter, "introduces a framework — People, Opportunity, Context, Deal — to evaluate opportunities, manage start-ups, and finance ventures."

Related:JAY-Z Says Fatherhood "Changed Practically Everything" in Rare Comment: "Time Is All You Have"

In more recent Ja news, the MC opened up about being left out of a list of the 50 greatest rappers of all time in February — one he felt he deserved to be a part of. The hitmaker revealed to his Twitter followers at the time that he felt he was snubbed after not being ranked in the final count of Billboard and VIBE's Top 50 Greatest Rappers of All Time piece.

The list, coinciding with the 50th anniversary of hip-hop, took "deliberation and deep discussion" to come to a final 50, per the publications.

"There ain't 50 rappers dead, alive or waiting to be born better than me… #ICONN #Vibes," Ja wrote. "@billboard congrats to everyone on the list well deserved but check my resume… #ICONN #Vibes."

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