Kendrick Lamar’s Music to be Studied as a Course in Temple University

The course will take an introspective dive into the rapper's discography and explore how the socio-economic conditions of Compton, California and West Coast hip-hop, structured his rap stories and style.

Temple University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, has announced a new course to study the music career of Kendrick Lamar Duckworth.

The “Kendrick Lamar and the Morale of M.A.A.D City” course is set to start in Fall 2025, with Timothy Welbeck, an assistant professor in the Department of Africology and African American Studies, as the instructor. The course will take an introspective dive into the rapper’s discography and explore how the socio-economic conditions of Compton, California and West Coast hip-hop, structured his rap stories and style. The course will aslo examine the rapper’s impact on Hip-Hop, culture and identity, through an Afrocentric approach.

Welbeck, who also doubles as a lawyer and an artiste, noted that Lamar’s ability to speak on  self-actualisation and the marginalisation of the black culture in his rap music makes him a worthy figure to lecture about.

“Kendrick Lamar is one of the leading voices of his generation and has a keen ability to articulate various dynamics of Black life and the quest towards self-actualization, and particularly also capturing the narrative of marginalization and rising from that,” he said.

The class will also include guest lectures from industry professionals who have worked alongside Kendrick, giving students a behind the scenes glimpse at his career and the music industry.

Welbeck states that his main target is to make students obtain an indepth comprehension of Lamar’s artistry and the influence of hip-hop as a whole, at the end of the course.

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