From Textbooks to Earphones
If it was not for people like Augusta University’s English professor, Adam Diehl, who will be a keynote speaker for Black Student Union’s “Kendrick Lamar’s DAMN. Analysis” event, there would not be anyone to give nuance to the dominant conservative voices in Hip Hop discussions when people like CNN commentator, Geraldo Rivera, believes that “hip-hop has done more damage than racism.”
Prior to Kendrick Lamar’s recent fame, it was hard to come across his earlier projects like Overly Dedicated and Section.80 due to the early development stages of social media and word-of-mouth traveling slower than the AOL dial-up services . Even sometimes when the dial-up services of these internet companies fail to connect to the servers, music finds a way to bridge the gap from people of all walks of life.
Just like most people that come across a new artist, Professor Diehl’s first introduction to Lamar’s music was hearing his “Swimming Pools” song on the airwaves. What caught Diehl’s attention about the song in particular is the beat and Lamar’s flow on the track.
While listening to the groove, Diehl caught himself replaying the lyrics within his head and saying to himself, “This song is not only speaking on substance abuse, but the nuance in the dangers of intoxication.” However, Diehl credits some English students for introducing this upcoming artist from Compton, CA. when they suggested, “If you are into the true essence of rap and especially gangster rap, then you should give
Kendrick Lamar a listen.”
Once Professor Diehl got around to listening several times to Good Kid, M.A.A.D City which is an audio version of a short film that encompasses a laundry list of oppressive hurdles that underrepresented people of color tend to deal with in America he believed that Kendrick Lamar deserves to be taught on a university level due to its rich literary style.
In 2014, Professor Diehl incorporated Lamar’s first studio album, Good Kid,
M.A.A.D City into an English class called “Good Kid, Mad Cities”. The course puts Lamar’s album in the context of James Baldwin, James Joyce, Gwendolyn Brooks, and “Boyz n the Hood” that uses music, literature, and film that is centered on people growing up in the city.
Recently, Professor Diehl added Kendrick Lamar’s sophomore album, “To Pimp a Butterfly,” a melodrama of political and spiritual undertones, midnight jazz and self- reflection, a part of a class called “O’ Captain! My Captain!” which is about leadership in literature, music and film.
According to Professor Diehl, the course will discuss and analyze various forms of art that “represents leaders and the idea of leadership.” Later, Kendrick Lamar’s forthcoming album, DAMN., became a part of the rest of his discography that is used in Diehl’s classroom. The course derives from the collection of varied emotion titled songs creating the theme for the class called “Second that Emotion.”
A week from today, on Thursday, January 24, 2019, at Augusta University in University Hall Room 170 at 7:30 p.m., Professor Diehl will give a general public display of an in-depth analysis on Kendrick Lamar’s DAMN. album.