Guilt and Shame's Interaction with Existential Dread and Hope in Kendrick Lamar's Music

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Date

2024-05

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The Ohio State University

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Abstract

Looking at the relationship that guilt and shame have with the complexities of existential dread and hope while using Kendrick Lamar's music as a case study and provoking example of religious practices. Lamar's Christian theology is littered throughout his music. It provides a much less orthodox look into religious practice and theology by engaging with these things while wrapped up in "sinful" behaviors and a mix of guilt and shame. His music is a great example to study how one's guilt and shame interact with their religion and how specifically it changes and morphs one's view of the afterlife which creates existential dread or hope. Along with an extensive study of Lamar's albums, I also make a case for why scholars in the fields of religious studies and Christian theology need to be engaged with these less orthodox instances of religion specifically with rap music.

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Theology, Rap, Religious Studies, Kendrick Lamar

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