Timothy Welbeck, a professor for the Department of Africology and African American Studies and the Director for the Center for Anti-Racism at Temple University, announced that he would be starting a new course on Kendrick Lamar.
The course, titled "Kendrick Lamar and the Morale of M.A.A.D City,” arrives to Temple in the Fall 2025 semester. According to Welbeck, it is already popular among the university's students.
"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 told NBC10, Philadelphia's NBC affiliate station. "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 him as an individual, but can also talk about the journey's towards self-actualization particularly as it is related to the Black experience."
Welbeck previously taught about 2Pac at the university. In addition to Pac and now Lamar, Beyoncé and Jay-Z also have dedicated classes to them at Temple.
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Kendrick Lamar Class
Welbeck also asserted that the goal of his course is to have students gain a clearer understanding of hip-hop as it relates to the Black experience. "The course will take a look at various scholarship around the types of urban policies that shift the demographic of Compton and how it helped to shape Kendrick Lamar," he also told NBC10.
Of course, Kendrick Lamar has had a successful 2025 to this point. He opened the year by sweeping every Grammy category he received a nomination for. On June 18, he and SZA wrapped up the North American leg of their Grand National tour, a series of shows that received widespread acclaim and became the highest grossing co-headlining tour of all time.
Now, fans and students can take a deeper look into Lamar's life and musical history with a new course at Temple, though the number of available spots is limited.
