“Promise That You Will Sing About Me…” Kendrick Lamar’s Good Kid Mad City, Meaning, Orality & Advocacy

Meaning, experience and perception are all linked through subjectivity and when paired with Rap music lyrics, images and ideas, the lines are easily blurred. Thus, the perception of Rap music lyrics, images and ideas within Popular Culture and the society at large prove that a critical exploration of space is necessary.  As a consequence, “Rap’s critics clai[m] that it celebrate[s] and promote[s] drugs and violence; its defenders claimed that it offered a critical portrait to the street life to which an entire generation of Black youth is condemned” (Grossberg et al, 2006).  Rapper Kendrick Lamar’s album, Good Kid Mad City (GKMC) released October 2012 could not have come at a better time as the albums themes of sex, drugs, disparity, and social influence prevail as they speak to the trials and tribulations of a Black male living in Compton as he battles his “inner” ills with his “outer” ills. However, despite GKMC’s seemingly typical themes, a new theme emerges within the areas of disparity analysis where Kendrick Lamar transitions through the roles of witness, rapper and advocate. Thus, this paper examines the conscious and subconscious themes of songs lyrics prescribed by GKMC through a lyrical analysis which is coupled with Walter Ong’s “Orality & Literacy” as a backdrop.

Participant Information:
Erin L. Berry, M.A.
 

Doctoral Student

Department of Language, Literacy & Culture

The University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC)