07-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Black America Web
A Kendrick Lamar Class Will Be Offered At Temple University This Fall
Source: PA Wire – PA Images / Getty
This fall, you can get some class credit for your obsession with Kendrick Lamar. Well, only if you are enrolled at Temple University in Philly, where noted professor Timothy Welbeck will teach an inaugural class on the 'Not Like Us' rapper.
Welbeck is a professor in Temple's Department of Africology and African American Studies and the Director for the Center for Anti-Racism, who has taught at the school for 14 years. The course will be called Kendrick Lamar and the Morale of M.A.A.D City , referencing a track from Lamar's 2012 sophomore release Good Kid, M.A.A.D City .
The professor told NBC10 in Philadelphia that he's been using Lamar's music in his classes for at least the last decade and that the department was receptive to the idea of a class on the Los Angeles-based rap star. He won't be the first musician the university has offered a class on, as Jay-Z, his wife Beyoncé, and Tupac have all been studied there as well.
'My current department chair was very open to the idea and received it almost immediately,' Welbeck told the outlet. 'In a lot of ways, our department at Temple specifically, and Temple more broadly, has embraced the study of hip-hop in academic spaces.'
Lamar, 38, created a viral sensation in 2024 with his Drake diss track 'Not Like Us,' which he performed at the Super Bowl LIX halftime show in February. He's the only rap star to win a Pulitzer Prize, which he did in 2018. He's also won 22 Grammys, placing him third behind Jay-Z and Kanye West. Lamar is currently on the international leg of his Grand National Tour with SZA in support of his sixth studio album, GNX.
Welbeck says the class will cover Lamar's music through the lens of the changing demographics in Compton, California, and its impact on Lamar's life and career. He hopes his students will come away from the course with a renewed appreciation for the artist and how he fits into the Black cultural zeitgeist.
'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 said. '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 about him as an individual, but can also talk about the journey towards self-actualization, particularly as it is related to the Black experience.'
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