24 Aug The Rap Lab at UVA
“Students Debut a Mixtape Straight from UVA’s ‘Rap Lab’ in Unusual Final Exam”
By Caroline Newman
Even on a rainy Tuesday night, it’s not unusual to hear music pumping through the speakers at Boylan Heights, a popular restaurant and bar across the street from the University of Virginia.
It is unusual, however, for that music to be entirely created, recorded and produced by a group of 14 students.
They call themselves “Ext. 398” – a nod to the classroom, New Cabell Hall 398 (aka the “Rap Lab”), where they spent hours this semester working on their own rap tracks in music professor A.D. Carson’s “Composing Mixtapes” course.
They presented their final exam on Tuesday night – not a test or a paper, but a 15-song mixtape they wrote, performed, recorded and produced as a class. The show was coordinated entirely by students, from the album itself to the food served. (No alcohol was served during the event.) …
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