University Unveils Course on Kendrick Lamar and the Black Experience

Yahoo is using AI to generate takeaways from this article. This means the info may not always match what's in the article. Reporting mistakes helps us improve the experience.Generate Key TakeawaysKendrick Lamar performs at the Super Bowl LIX Halftime Show on Feb. 9, 2025 in New Orleans, LA. - Credit: Gregory Shamus/Getty Images

Kendrick Lamar’s monumental career and his cultural impact will soon be a topic of discussion and study at Temple University.

A course titled, “Kendrick Lamar and the Morale of M.A.A.D City,” will be available to all students during the Fall 2025 semester, with Timothy Welbeck, a professor for the Department of Africology and African American Studies and the Director for the Center for Anti-Racism at Temple University, at the helm.

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“Kendrick Lamar is one of the defining voices of his generation, and in many ways, both his art and life is reflective of the Black experience in many telling ways,” Welbeck told NBC10, which first shared the news. “Being able to discuss his art in the environment that helps lead him into being the man that he is in a lot of ways can tell you him as an individual, but can also talk about the journey’s towards self-actualization particularly as it is related to the Black experience.”

In previous years, the work of Tupac, Beyoncé, and Jay-Z have all been classes offered at the university. Welbeck, who has taught at Temple University for 14 years, said he planned the course for nearly a year. Lamar’s material, however, has been woven into his past lessons for about a decade.

“My current department chair was very open to the idea and received it almost immediately,” Welbeck told the outlet. “In a lot of ways, our department at Temple specifically, and Temple more broadly, has embraced the study of hip-hop in academic spaces.”

This year, Lamar, emerging victorious from a rap war with Drake, delivered a historic Super Bowl halftime performance, swept the Grammys with his chart-topping diss track, won Album of the Year at the BET Awards, and embarked on a National Tour with SZA packed with star power. Welbeck’s course will no doubt touch on the rapper’s many accomplishments, but he also hopes students will gain a “a deeper appreciation for Lamar, hip-hop culture and how art is a muse in which to convey the components of the Black experiences.”

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The course, which begins in August, is now open for enrollment. Welbeck said that it “will take a look at various scholarship around the types of urban policies that shift the demographic of Compton and how it helped to shape Kendrick Lamar,” and shared that students will listen to three to four of his albums and plans to invite Lamar’s collaborators to speak with students about his career and the music industry.

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