The Gospel of Kendrick Lamar and James Cone
(In this paper I explore the critiques Kendrick Lamar, James Cone, and Daniel White Hodge would have in my presentation and sermon that explores the black liberation of Kendrick Lamar and James Cone.)
My project, Kendrick and Cone, consisted of an exploration of multi-Grammy winning hip-hop artist Kendrick Lamar’s third album, To Pimp a Butterfly, and the work of the premier black liberation theologian, James Cone. This project is a natural outgrowth of the work I would love to do further on in my career: exploring the intersection of music and theology. I paired Lamar and Cone because, from my surface-level engagement with their work, they seem to match closely in their motives and impact in their respective fields. While I hope my project does justice in comparing and contrasting the two, there are certainly critiques both Cone and Lamar would issue me in my project. Therefore, in this essay I will identify some of the critiques of my project that Cone and Lamar would levy against me, as well as bringing in cultural theorist and theologian, Daniel White Hodge, into the conversation with my project.
To begin Cone’s critique against my project, it is apropos for me to be socially located from the perspective of Cone. He would, without hesitation, identify me as a white liberal. While Cone’s own theological project was not a reaction against them, he was readily scornful of white liberals of his day. While I hope much more of myself than the designation of ‘white liberal,’ because of my whiteness, my best may be just that. With this in mind, Cone’s first critique of me would be a suspicion of my capacity to adequately, properly, and justly place he and Lamar in conversation with one another because of my whiteness. This is certainly a fair critique. My lived experience as a white, middle-class man could not be more different than both of Cone and Lamar’s experiences. In addition to my whiteness as a fault to me being able to do justice to this project, I believe Cone would also appreciate more work given to the existentialist tradition from which he engages and the existentialism found within the lyrics of Lamar. Cone extended the existentialist work of Barth, Tillich, and other white theologians, to the black experience. His work was truly black existentialism. Even in my short presentation of my analysis of Lamar’s song, “Alright,” there is a great deal of existentialism Lamar is exploring, including the paradox of his morality, that I could easily connect with Cone’s work. Therefore, Cone would perhaps suggest placing a greater deal of emphasis on this connection between his work and Lamar’s lyrics…