Anthony David Vernon argues that hip-hop has lost its rebellious edge, but embracing anti-fascist resistance could restore the genre's defiant power and give artists something meaningful to fight against.
From Tupac's fear of reincarnation to Buddhist concepts of suffering, Kendrick Lamar weaves together hip-hop history and religious philosophy to examine what it means to return to life eternally — and whether such return might be the Devil's own prison.
In "Watch The Party Die," Kendrick grapples with his calling as a musical prophet, torn between peaceful Christian ideals and the violent justice he feels compelled to deliver.
Kendrick Lamar's "euphoria" asks us to reconsider everything we think we know about hate. By embracing the role of hip-hop's "biggest hater," he exposes the paradoxical joy we find in our pettiest grievances, transforming a diss track into a meditation on human nature.
One of hip-hop's most cerebral artists grapples with the nature of morality itself. Parsing Lamar's lyrics reveals a complex philosophical system where earthly existence traps us in perpetual error, while salvation waits in the beyond.
Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers is maybe the purest Kendrick Lamar Concept Album yet. The striking new production direction is here, the bars and the songwriting are here, the narrative arc is here. And we've even been treated to another helping of controversy, for flavor.