Ayahuasca & The Valley of Silence: Kendrick Lamar on the Insufficiency of Christian Theology for Generational Trauma

This proposal takes as its starting point the observation that Kendrick Lamar experienced a significant religious/spiritual transformation relating to his well-known Christian faith during the 5-year hiatus between his albums DAMN. (2017) and Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers (2022).

The multimedia examination proposed will identify new spiritual elements that appear on Mr. Morale, contrasting them with conceptual framing in Lamar's earlier work, and analyzing personal, social, and political corollaries of this transformation.

This latter analysis will review Kendrick's recent output--pgLang, GNX (2024), and of course the Drake feud and Super Bowl LIX Halftime Show--extending the theoretical implications and challenges that Lamar's new direction offers to Christian theology.

One note before summarizing my argument: Kendrick is a gifted ironist, and frequently speaks in different voices/perspectives.  This presented difficulties for my proposal.  Prior drafts grew to be unreadable; citations became excurses explaining the context of lyrics, etc.  So while the following argument arises from close attention to Lamar's work, for the clarity of this proposal I will not be thoroughly citing lyrical references.  The final presentation will be cited.

The thesis of this work is that Mr. Morale reveals Kendrick Lamar's conclusive dissatisfaction with the resources of Christian theology for dealing with generational trauma.  Mr. Morale goes beyond wedding "therapy" with Kendrick's faith; the adoption of Eckhart Tolle's philosophical spiritualism offers the most decisive evidence for dramatic reconfiguration.

Consequently, common Kendrick references--"Ego," "Pride," "Freedom"--take on new layers of meaning in/after Mr. Morale.  Theological concepts that Kendrick used to frame earlier albums are also reviewed, with ideas like Sin/Guilt-Forgiveness/Reconciliation; Salvation and "Savior" (and extension of "Savior" figure as someone to be exemplified/re-presented); and Final Judgment (and the security/validation this can offer in the present) all being questioned or outright displaced.

Mr. Morale's focus on generational trauma instead relies, fundamentally, on Eckhart Tolle's conception of Ego and the priority of the Now.  Freedom is no longer an aspect or function of Redemption; Freedom takes Redemption's (ultimate) status.  Healing, as the mechanism for Freedom, likewise substitutes in for Salvation.  Both of these--Healing and Freedom--are available Now.

This immediate availability is, moreover, not through resolution of past injustices or "returning good for evil" to perpetuate a better future, but by "walking away"--transcending problems and past by refusing to be determined by them; refusing to allow one's present possibilities to be restricted to a response, whether negatively or positively.

"Ego," in the new schema, sheds its close association with the sin of Pride, and takes on a psychoanalytic sense of the unchosen, object part of the individual: i.e., that which is received, whether from one's parents/family, close personal connections, or through one's "Culture" (broadly conceived) rendering judgment or approval on one's life/labels/identity.  "Ego" can still be harmful or corrupted--and invariably is under the conditions of generational trauma.  But this new sense of Ego is more neutral; "Ego" can also be "stripped," renewed, and/or protected.

These changes also imply a new suspicion of "Savior[/s]"--either in the singular or as a category for emulation--which I will use briefly to illustrate the method I intend for my full presentation.  Kendrick's line in "Mirror" (Mr. Morale, 2022),

Faith in one man is a ship sinking

is more fully developed in the track "Savior" (Mr. Morale, 2022), which should be directly contrasted with the introspective finale of To Pimp A Butterfly (2015), "Mortal Man."  In this latter track, Kendrick concludes a deeply reflective album analyzing the experience of being black in America with the chorus,

When shit hits the fan,

Is you still a fan?

which is paired with a spliced/constructed conversation resurrecting Tupac to help Kendrick consider how best to provide an example for others in the face of injustice.

In "Savior," by contrast, Kendrick sandwiches the chorus, 

Bitch, are you happy for me?

Really, are you happy for me?

between an introduction opening with,

Kendrick made you think about it, but he is not your savior

and a third verse that drives home,

Yeah, Tupac dead, gotta think for yourself.

Contrary to more popular takes, I think the sum of the album indicates that this track conveys a new suspicion of any impulse to look outward for salvation.

These themes draw forward through Kendrick's more recent output as well.  Alluding to one obvious example: In Lamar's (nasty) (vile) (criminally underrated) Drake takedown "Meet the Grahams," Kendrick frames the whole feud as concern for the generational trauma being ignorantly perpetuated by Aubrey Graham.  Couched in incisive-yet-patronizing empathy for Drake's childhood and conflicted identity, Kendrick says: 

I suggest some ayahuasca, strip the ego from the bottom

There is no "Christian" forgiveness even feigned here--no turning the other cheek or offering Drake a "hand up" (as Lamar did after "Control" (2013)).  The only recommendation Kendrick extends (for an Ego as corrupted as Drake's) is the completely self-reliant procedure of erasing his identity and starting over.  I believe this reflects, to a degree, Kendrick's own experience, as reflected in the final line from "Savior": 

[...]They like to wonder where I've been,

Protecting my soul [read: Ego] in the valley of silence.

These new convictions also help explain Lamar's less-than-conciliatory messaging in his Super Bowl halftime show (toward both Drake and Trump/White America), in ways yet to be fully unpacked.  As a Christian theologian, I find Kendrick's perspective thought-provoking and valuable.  I am not convinced it is ultimately antithetical to Christian faith/theology--but it will require an ongoing undertaking of cooperative reflection and reconstruction.  I hope this presentation contributes to that effort.

Two final notes:

1. I do not presume that Kendrick no longer identifies as Christian, nor am I interested in questioning the "authenticity" of his faith.  I am interested in appreciating Lamar as a thoughtful and perceptive public intellectual--admirably public--and teasing out the direction his art gestures.
2. This presentation aims to be accessible even for those minimally familiar with Kendrick Lamar, so I will prepare a handout with lyrical citations and evidence for my opening observation about Kendrick's spiritual transformation.