UPDATE (6/6)

A.D. Carson recently finished his program at Clemson and is going on to become an assistant professor of hip-hop and the global south at University of Virginia. He told the Independent Mail that he'll still be making music and he has already collaborated with a doctoral candidate on a song for a project that he'll release when classes begin.

"I believe so strongly in hip-hop and have been so influenced by the culture that I take the responsibility very seriously and I have to be very mindful and very careful and very deliberate of the moves I make while I'm in this position," Carson told the outlet. "I want to establish myself as a scholar and artist and to really get a feel of the community that exists through hip-hop, especially at the local level in Charlottesville."

PREVIOUSLY:

A Clemson University Ph.D. candidate decided to forgo a traditional dissertation for a more creative platform: a 34-track rap album.

A.D. Carson wanted to use hip-hop and spoken word to explore the areas of identity, justice economics, citizenship and language for his rhetorics, communication and information design program. So he wrote and produced Owning My Masters: The Rhetorics of Rhymes and Revolutions Hes the first Clemson student to opt out of the traditional, written form.