Much of his work attends to hip-hop culture, including editing a 2011 special issue of the Bulletin for the Study of Religion on the topic he is coauthor of Breaking Bread, Breaking Beats: Churches and Hip Hop – A Guide to Key Issues (Fortress, 2014). Driscoll is also cofounder and former chair of the Critical Approaches to Hip Hop and Religion group at the American Academy of Religion. Driscoll is Assistant Professor of Religion, Africana, and American Studies at Lehigh University. 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. This sophisticated exploration of one of popular culture’s emerging icons reveals a complex and multifaceted engagement with religion, faith, race, art, and culture. 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. 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. Starting with Section 80 and ending with DAMN., this book deals with each of Lamar’s four major projects in turn. 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. This book is the first to provide an interdisciplinary academic analysis of the impact of Lamar’s corpus. 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. Kendrick Lamar and the Making of Black Meaning Kendrick Lamar has established himself at the forefront of contemporary hip-hop culture. as an aesthetic genealogy16 'I'm an Israelite': Kendrick Lamar's spiritual search, Hebrew Israelite religion, and the politics of a celebrity encounterġ7 Damnation, identity, and truth: vocabularies of suffering in Kendrick Lamar's DAMN.ġ8 Hebrew Israelite covenantal theology and Kendrick Lamar's constructive project in DAMN.Ĭonclusion: KENosis: the meaning of Kendrick Lamar Citation preview cityħ 'Black meaning' out of urban mud: good kid, m.A.A.d city as Compton griot-riff at the crossroads of climate-apocalypse?Ĩ Rap as Ragnarök: Kendrick Lamar, Eminem, and the value of competitionĩ Can dead homies speak? the spirit and flesh of black meaning 10 Loving is complicated: black self-love and affirmation in the rap music of Kendrick Lamar11 From 'blackness' to afrofuture to 'impasse': the figura of the Jimi Hendrix/Richie Havens identity revolution as faintly evidenced by the work of Kendrick Lamar and more than a head nod to Lupe Fiascoġ2 Beyond flight and containment: Kendrick Lamar, black study, and an ethics of the woundġ3 "Real nigga conditions": Kendrick Lamar, grotesque realism, and the open bodyġ4 DAMNed to the earth: Kendrick Lamar, de/colonial violence, and earthbound salvation 15 Kendrick Lamar's DAMN. city (2012) 5 The good, the m.A.A.d, and the holy: Kendrick Lamar's meditations on sin and moral agency in the post-gangsta era6 'Real is responsibility': revelations in white through the filter of black realness on good kid, m.A.A.d. 80ģ Hol' up: post-civil rights black theology within Kendrick Lamar's Section. 80: Reagan-era bluesĢ Can I be both? blackness and the negotiation of binary categories in Kendrick Lamar's Section. Dotting the American cultural landscape with black meaningġ Kendrick Lamar's Section.