A Rhetorical Analysis Of Kendrick Lamar

The voices that differ from our own may initially ignite some feeling of fear or apprehension within us because these voices differ from what we perceive to be the norm within our society. Growing up, we are generally taught to sit down and remain silent, and to refrain from risking what we have for those who have nothing. In the past decade, social media has become a prominent source in revealing worldly injustice and has served as a medium through which stories that we may have never heard can be shared. Furthermore, universities such as the University of Arizona provide platforms through which students are able to voice their beliefs, no matter what those beliefs are, upholding our nation’s provision of free speech for all. Typical high

schools in the United States appear to maintain a similar provision of free speech; however, it is far more difficult to speak freely and have access to diverse opinions without a platform and with the restrictive, judgmental environment that exists in most American high schools. The allowance and active encouragement of diversity of opinion in universities leads to more of a presence of unrestricted, distinct perspectives within our society’s conversation.

In the past few years, rapper Kendrick Lamar has made his way in front of the public eye.

Traditionally African American music, such as the music produced by Lamar, has recently become increasingly prominent and popular, giving Lamar a platform with a fairly diverse audience due to the current popularity of the rap genre. Lamar’s powerful music video for his hit song “DNA” presents as argument against those who are inclined to make assumptions about African American people based on their race. Lamar uses his platform as an influential rapper in our society to blatantly say what other people are afraid to say and maintains an anthem that can best be characterized as historicity. He reminds his audience of the past and brings attention to the present, and in doing so, calls out white people, who listen to his music and look up to him. Furthermore, Lamar is able to do this without completely excluding white people from his audience. The music video for “DNA” itself includes a soundbite directly from a white male news reporter, who states, “This is why I say that hip-hop has done more damage to young African Americans than racism in recent years” (2:57-3:04). Thus, Lamar utilizes the platform he worked for and speaks out to his audience, addressing what people in the past have wanted to

disregard.

Comparatively, in high school, students are given platforms as an opportunity to speak out, yet many choose not to because the environment in high school is usually so tight-knit and, so to speak, restrictive. For example, I was part of a graduating class of 31 students, and everybody knew everybody else’s name. That type of environment can feel confining to some, and may discourage some from taking on available platforms within their high school to ‘speak out’ with their different opinions. However, as I learned throughout my transition to college both personally and academically, the more people that there are to interact with, the more diversity of opinion there is. Every class I have taken during my freshman year has introduced me to people from different backgrounds who have different views of the world and how it works or should work. These various freshmen classes at the University of Arizona, such as English 109H, brought together people who for the most part came from different high schools with different mindsets and backgrounds. Because of the innate diversity of opinion that comes with college, the conversations that I have with people who I have known for a few months shy of a year vary greatly from those with the people I grew up with in my hometown.

Through his works that relate to our current changing culture, Kendrick Lamar makes it clear that his ultimate goal is to be an eye-opener.

A lot of people are simply not aware of the extent of or have not been educated on concepts such as racism as it has and does exist in the United States. Lamar’s platform gives him a position to educate and provide a candid perspective, which he is actively using to speak out to his audience. Similarly, college classrooms provide a platform for students, who are far more likely to have different backgrounds and cultures than they are in a local high school, to debate and question each other in a more positive environment. As the progression of the past year has shown me personally, college freshmen are essentially exposed to a whole new system of living and get the opportunity to experience real adulthood for, in some cases, the first time. Along with the new personal experiences come the new social experiences through the classes that we take as freshmen. For example, in English 109H, our video project essay allowed for each student to discuss a topic that they care about as well as for all other students to respond to that topic through a Q&A session. These two different types of platforms, the platform created by a celebrity and the platform created by a University, both directly and indirectly promote the interchange of opinions within a positive

environment.

To conclude, certain platforms are intended to be spaces for open discussion as much as they are intended to be spaces for people to speak their truths. Kendrick Lamar intentionally uses his platform as a celebrity to address his white audience while not completely alienating them, while University classes designated for freshmen use their platform to push people of different backgrounds together through group work or projects in order to stimulate unfamiliar conversations between these people of different backgrounds. The difference between excluding people from the conversation because they have a different ethnicity or because they have a different opinion from your own and encouraging respectful engagement from a distance or debate is emphasized by the success of the platforms that Lamar uses and University classes provide.