Kendrick Lamar's Hypocrisy: A Racial Identity within 'The Blacker The Berry' (2015).

Abstract

The concepts authenticity and identity frequently recur in academic debates on hip hop culture. However, the specific connection between representation of racial identity and the genre of gangsta rap remains under-researched. Existing academic literature discusses the concepts authenticity, representation, (Black) identity, race and postcolonial theory in a hip hop framework, however, (mostly) individually. In this thesis, I aim to fill this gap. I attempt to show how these individual concepts can intersect within the gangsta rap genre, with Kendrick Lamar’s ‘The Blacker The Berry’ as case study. That is why the main aim of this thesis is to determine in what way Kendrick Lamar represents his racial identity in the song ‘The Blacker The Berry’ from the album To Pimp A Butterfly (2015). By analysing ‘The Blacker The Berry’, which so far has escaped scholarly discussion, in this thesis I explore whether this song conforms to the general discussion about Lamar’s self-love ethic and the larger concerns about authenticity in hip hop culture and the gangsta rap genre. This analysis will be based on lyrical, musical and performative level and it will show how Lamar criticises on both the Black and white community and represents his own racial identity in ‘The Blacker The Berry’, even though he comprehends the Black culture is flawed, too.