Temple University Announces New Course about Kendrick Lamar & His Cultural Impact

Temple University is planning a new course this fall focused on Kendrick Lamar and his cultural impact on the Black experience.

Local outlet NBC10 in Philadelphia broke the news earlier this week, announcing the course is titled “Kendrick Lamar and the Moral of M.A.A.D. City.” 

The course will be taught by Professor Timothy Welbeck, who teaches in the Department of Africology and African American Studies and is currently the Director of the Center for Anti-Racism. 

Welbeck has taught at Temple for 14 years and has often woven hip-hop and the Black experience into his courses. He previously taught about urban Black politics, 2Pac, and the intersection of rap with Black identity. 

Welbeck has been planning and prepping this Kendrick course for over a year and has previously used K-Dot’s material in his other classes.

“My current department chair was very open to the idea and received it almost immediately,” Welbeck told NBC10. “In a lot of ways, our department at Temple specifically, and Temple more broadly, has embraced the study of hip-hop in academic spaces.”

He added, “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 the outlet. “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.”

The course will more particularly focus on how K-Dot and hip-hop examine the evolution of Black expression in America. Welbeck said he hopes the course will help students see the power of hip-hop as a form of art and storytelling.

Kendrick is not only the first Black artist to be a focal point at Temple University, previous course topics also highlighted Jay-Z and Beyoncé’s accomplishments as well.