Kendrick Lamar and the Making of Black Meaning

by Christopher M. Driscoll (Editor), Anthony B. Pinn (Editor), Monica R. Miller (Editor)

Kendrick Lamar has established himself at the forefront of contemporary hip-hop culture. Artistically adventurous and socially conscious, he has been unapologetic in using his art form, rap music, to address issues affecting black lives while also exploring subjects fundamental to the human experience, such as religious belief. This book is the first to provide an interdisciplinary academic analysis of the impact of Lamar’s corpus. In doing so, it highlights how Lamar’s music reflects current tensions that are keenly felt when dealing with the subjects of race, religion and politics. Starting with Section 80 and ending with DAMN. , this book deals with each of Lamar’s four major projects in turn. A panel of academics, journalists and hip-hop practitioners show how religion, in particular black spiritualties, take a front-and-center role in his work. They also observe that his astute and biting thoughts on race and culture may come from an African American perspective, but many find something familiar in Lamar’s lyrical testimony across great chasms of social and geographical difference. This sophisticated exploration of one of popular culture’s emerging icons reveals a complex and multi faceted engagement with religion, faith, race, art and culture. As such, it will be vital reading for anyone working in religious, African American and hip-hop studies, as well as scholars of music, media and popular culture.

Genres: Music

388 pages, Paperback

Published September 30, 2021

Reviews

[Maddie Starr · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book for my Hip-hop class; I was really excited to read this because I’m a big fan of Kendrick Lamar. This book is definitely very academic, and some of the chapters went straight over my head, but most were super insightful and interesting. I will say that this book started out super strong with the unpacking of Section.80 and GKMC, but I found the sections on TPAB and DAMN. to be either repetitive or too abstract at times (maybe I was just experiencing fatigue with the book though.) Either way, super cool textbook compared to most things I have to read for school!