Driscoll Christopher M. - Kendrick Lamar and the making of black meaning

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 Lamars corpus. In doing so, it highlights how Lamars 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 Lamars 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 Lamars lyrical testimony across great chasms of social and geographical difference.

This sophisticated exploration of one of popular cultures emerging icons reveals a complex and multifaceted 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.

Christopher M. Driscoll is Assistant Professor of Religion, Africana, and American Studies at Lehigh University. Driscoll is also cofounder and former chair of the Critical Approaches to Hip Hop and Religion group at the American Academy of Religion. 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 author of White Lies: Race & Uncertainty in the Twilight of American Religion (Routledge, 2015) and coauthor (with Monica R. Miller) of Method as Identity: Manufacturing Distance in the Academic Study of Religion (Lexington, 2018).

Monica R. Miller is Associate Professor of Religion, Africana Studies, and Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Lehigh University, USA. She is the author of Religion and Hip Hop (Routledge, 2012); The Hip Hop and Religion Reader, coedited with Anthony B. Pinn (Routledge, 2014); and Religion in Hip Hop: Mapping the New Terrain in the US, coedited with Anthony B. Pinn and Bernard Bun B Freeman (Bloomsbury, 2015), coauthor (with Christopher M. Driscoll) of Method as Identity: Manufacturing Distance in the Academic Study of Religion (Lexington, 2018), among other books, numerous essays, and book chapters on the topic. Miller is cofounder and cochair of the first ever American Academy of Religion group on hip-hop entitled Critical Approaches to Hip Hop and Religion and has presented nationally and internationally on the topic over the past ten years. Miller is also a Senior Research Fellow with the Institute for Humanist Studies (IHS), and a member of the Board of Directors of the American Humanist Association (AHA) in Washington, DC.

Anthony B. Pinn is Agnes Cullen Arnold Professor of Humanities and Professor of Religious Studies at Rice University. He is the founding Director of Rices Center for Engaged Research and Collaborative Learning. Pinn is also the Director of Research for the Institute for Humanist Studies (Washington, DC). In addition to courses on African American religious thought, liberation theologies, and religious aesthetics, Pinn co-teaches with Bernard Bun B Freeman a popular course on religion and hip-hop culture. The course received media coverage from a variety of outlets, including MTV. He is the author/editor of over 30 books, including Noise and Spirit: Rap Musics Religious and Spiritual Sensibilities (NYU Press, 2003); The Religion and Hip Hop Reader, coedited with Monica R. Miller (Routledge, 2014); and Religion in Hip Hop: Mapping the New Terrain in the US, coedited with Monica R. Miller and Bernard Bun B Freeman (Bloomsbury, 2015).

Series editors: Anthony B. Pinn and Monica R. Miller

Australian Indigenous Hip Hop

The Politics of Culture, Identity, and Spirituality

Chiara Minestrelli

Kendrick Lamar and the Making of Black Meaning

Christopher M. Driscoll, Anthony B. Pinn and Monica R. Miller

For more information about this series, please visit: www.routledge.com/religion/series/RSHHR

Edited by
Christopher M. Driscoll,
Anthony B. Pinn, and
Monica R. Miller

First published 2020

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ISBN: 978-1-138-54151-1 (hbk)

ISBN: 978-1-351-01085-6 (ebk)

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