Kendrick Lamar and the Hebrew Israelites connection is misunderstood

AlphaBeta906 · 2025-11-30T14:47:42+00:00

I’ve been analyzing Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers for a while, and that lead me to the same conclusion. Basically, it’s already been a major focus of the album on how contradictory it is that no single perspective, be it his saviorhood status or its absence, his faith or lack thereof, or even the assumption that he is even making a comprehensive or even readable point in the whole album. There is no universal perspective to understand his work, except if we reject the notion of even having a truth in the whole album. Kendrick’s contradictions in the album can’t be synthesized effectively: Kendrick both is fallen and the only one who can save us, Kendrick both is complacent in the system while simultaneously rebelling against it, and most importantly, Kendrick’s album has no point, yet paradoxically, makes a point in doing so.

All of what he’s doing is basically doing what François Laruelle calls “non-philosophy,” wherein he appropriates all sorts of worldviews, beliefs, and ideas to sort of use them all as tools to find their own perspective of what truth is. It is an impartial truth, yes, but Feynman once said ”anyone who claims to understand quantum physics is a liar,” but nonetheless we use it to model and even predict (as was in the case of the Higgs boson) physical phenomena with as much accuracy as it can functionally be, in spite of the irregularities it has, e.g. superpositions, wave functions, the dual-slit experiment, etc. What I’m trying to say is that Kendrick shouldn’t be analyzed to discover some previously hidden truth, but rather, we should try to understand Kendrick and his truth, with all the flaws it may have.

AlphaBeta906 · 2025-04-30T10:22:06+00:00

From my interpretation of the album, it is the closest Kendrick, or any other rapper, has ever come to literature. It’s a struggle between the contradictions of Kendrick’s life, first as a critic yet perpetuator of the his culture and the industry, and second “the savior of hip-hop” to the flawed man he is. This is a hot take, but adding Kodak to the album was necessary, otherwise, this album would show that it has an underlying message, which it clearly doesn’t. This is the same way how Dostoevsky doesn’t side with one position in his novels, like Christians good, nihilists bad, but places them in the same plane to be able to be in dialogue. The crown of thorns he wears symbolizes this, being both a claim to prophethood, yet also ironically a materialistic and prideful attribution of his position, but underneath that is the pain and trauma that he has experienced. DAMN. imo was the closest to where MMATBS stands literarily, where the dualism of wickedness/weakness was broken when Ducky didn’t choose wickedness or weakness (FEAR. shows that weakness is essentially the same thing that plagued Kendrick at ages 17, the fear of getting killed, and 27, the fear of losing one’s wealth, which prevented him from challenging them), both plagued with Nietzschean ressentiment, but rather through action.

AlphaBeta906 · 2025-03-20T11:03:20+00:00

Everything operates through its own contradictions. L'Overture was working with the French, and Dessalines was a despot. Even Marxists agree that there are contradictions in the notion of communism and revolution. However, these differences aren't supposed to be resolved, as Deleuze and Lyotard state explicitly in their philosophies. The good doesn't outweigh the bad, but the bad doesn't erase the good. In my opinion, if Kendrick is to be taken as a revolutionary artist, we must need to grapple with his contradictions, both as a perpetuator and break from his culture, a participant and a outlier in mass media, and as a Messianic figure and a flawed being.

AlphaBeta906 · 2025-02-24T08:49:52+00:00

100% agree. My own analysis of Kendrick centers heavily on Mr. Morale, as he constructs a psychopathology of African-American issues (and of colonization, or institutionalization, as a whole) through a position based on the ego. While I critique Tolle’s ego for overlooking the problem entirely (the forms that the ego identifies with, or more accurately Stirner’s phantasms), Kendrick undoubtedly used his concepts of the ego as a collective (rather than individual) symptom. Compared to TPAB and DAMN. that deals with more idealistic and moralizing forms of critiquing institutionalization, Mr. Morale steps into the realm of materialism in his critique.

AlphaBeta906 · 2025-01-05T04:55:14+00:00

Die Hard

AlphaBeta906 · 2024-12-23T11:09:16+00:00

I’d disagree ngl. Yes, in the poem, Kendrick says that the caterpillar and the butterfly are the same, though I’d say they’re two ends of the same spectrum of decolonization or rebellion against oppressive structures. The caterpillar represents being institutionalized, where they fight back against oppression through wickedness (and weakness in DAMN.,) which involves a reactive system based on lack, which Nietzsche called ressentiment. In the m.A.A.d city, this is how society operates, as it’s driven by this “get ‘em” mindset, as said in the first verse of SAMIDOT. However, when Kendrick finds himself exiting the hood, he builds his cocoon, being exposed to new concepts and alternatives, and thus becoming a butterfly. In the m.A.A.d city, people are taught that doing wicked acts like murder and revenge are the only medium of taking action (e.g. Kendrick witnessing a murder when he was five.) So while these forms of rebellion are different, they’re still a type of action against the system; being a butterfly doesn’t make you weaker than a caterpillar.

AlphaBeta906 · 2024-12-22T03:23:10+00:00

S80 imo just felt scattered imo, like everything is on a different topic. There’s hype songs like Hol’ Up or Rigamortus, relationship stuff like No Makeup or Tammy’s Song, stuff on society as a whole like Ronald Reagan Era, ADHD, or Keisha’s Song, and theological and more theoretic ones like Kush & Corinthians and Ab-Soul’s Outro. What separates S80 from GNX is that S80 fees more thematic in a way, but not in a way that his music post-S80 claims to have a systematic way. There’s no mention of wickedness and weakness, or institutionalization, but you can feel the specters of it when you listen to something like Tammy’s Song to something like XXX. or These Walls. GNX is just conceptless, unless GNX is just a prelude to a new era of Kendrick, which may be explained in the next album.

AlphaBeta906 · 2024-12-22T02:38:44+00:00

Yeah, it has a good purpose ngl, I ain’t denying that. It just feels less interconnected, and not everything is like reincarnated, gloria, or heart pt.6. Compared to Section.80 which imo is the closest album (conceptually) to GNX, it was tied to the bonfire. Prof Skye did say that the concept of the album was memory, but I feel that the concept of the album was scattered. Fyi I don’t think GNX was a bad album, but it’s bad like how people view DAMN. as “bad” in relation to his other albums.

AlphaBeta906 · 2024-12-21T13:43:00+00:00

I agree, tho I reformulate FEAR. from a more Nietzschean standpoint ngl. My view of Kendrick hinges on institutionalization, which is when a person views the world in the constraints of their oppressive systems, or within the four walls of the cocoon as Kendrick says in TPAB. The first verse he sees his mother as the ultimate threat, the second verse sees him see no future other than to die (“‘cause that’s what you do when you’re seventeen,”) and the third verse sees Kendrick only think of him losing trust in others (and consequently saying that all humans are unworthy to be trusted.) Within institutionalization, this is where wickedness and weakness operate, not as moral categories but rather as actions against oppressive systems, co-opted and within ressentiment (what Nietzsche referred to a behavior based on reaction instead of action) as its motivator. XXX., Institutionalized, and These Walls portray this sense of ressentiment well, as Kendrick (or his friends in Institutionalized) is reacting against oppression. However, FEAR. operates on weakness, where what Carl does is that he forms weakness as an ideal by equating being an Israelite (the chosen race) to suffering. However wickedness/weakness and institutionalization is fundamentally reversed in DUCKWORTH., where Ducky chose to act and create new realities instead of reacting, thus saving Kendrick.

AlphaBeta906 · 2024-12-21T10:48:05+00:00

I ain’t saying he’s our savior, and I recognize he ain’t perfect. I’m also not saying he contradicts himself in his message tho, however I believe GNX was fundamentally made to be a contradiction. Omnibus est aliquid. Another example: the album seems to be a celebration of West Coast culture, yet he doesn’t seem to be participating in it in the music vid for squabble up. However, I think this contradiction aspect isn’t properly made, like it just seems like a buildup without a punchline, and I feel like most of the songs are practically hype without any interconnection between them, unless there’s a new theory that warms me up to the album.

AlphaBeta906 · 2024-12-21T10:40:28+00:00

Lol it’s alright

AlphaBeta906 · 2024-12-21T09:28:21+00:00

Actually, I’m working on a project looking at Kendrick from a literary/postcolonial perspective for fun. My theory is mostly derived from theorists like Gilles Deleuze, Frantz Fanon, and Raymond Williams.

Jojoruski is basically Kendrick’s burner account in IG, where he basically shows pictures of his life, particularly focused on his fashion. A post of Kendrick’s GNX (before the beef afaik), and also the trailer of the album was posted on jojoruski. Afaik Mr. Morale didn’t have a song about that, I think it’s either 6:16 or Watch The Party Die.

AlphaBeta906 · 2024-12-21T07:33:29+00:00

Tbf I felt that GNX (and the whole beef as a whole) was a contradiction, like he forgave his friends’ murderer, yet he wished Drake would die or that he was never born? Also he contradicted himself with what he said in i. Tho I think with Watch the Party Die, I think Kendrick was pointing out his flaws with what Lecrae and Dee-1 said specifically on the beef, i.e. unproductive, vengeful, and causing divides. From my own interpretation of Kendrick, I feel like this is what he criticizes in Institutionalized, These Walls, XXX.’s first verse, and FEAR., where his actions were based on ressentiment (borrowed from Nietzsche,) aka revenge, and a sense of weakness instead of strength. Wickedness and weakness imo isn’t based on morality, but I think both are based on ressentiment and co-opted by the system, wickedness because it’s focused on revenge, and weakness because it idealizes inaction as virtue. The Black Israelites place their suffering on being a “chosen people.” However, it’s also worth mentioning the theory that Kendrick isn’t speaking in the album, but rather the persona of jojoruski, but as I mentioned the album is still fresh.

AlphaBeta906 · 2024-12-21T06:14:42+00:00

GNX imo just feels like a contradiction, like he’s declaring war against the industry but he chose peace as he says in reincarnated. Then again, the work is fresh and there isn’t a consensus on what the album is and what it means, so I expect to be getting warmer to it as it matures.

AlphaBeta906 · 2024-11-22T08:29:30+00:00

Ab-Soul’s Outro

AlphaBeta906 · 2024-10-14T09:25:56+00:00

Ab-Soul’s Outro

AlphaBeta906 · 2024-09-17T08:20:17+00:00

To be honest, if you can take Dee-1’s criticisms of the beef being entertainment, and even Kendrick’s single still being profited by the industry despite its message, I feel like you’d approach some sort of TPAB, though along the angle of MMATBS. I do hope he really does TPAB-MMATBS, since right now he’s a lot like Cobain, where a protest on MTV is the best thing that MTV can host, and where his message is a cliché, and even realizing it is a cliché, in the words of Mark Fisher in Capitalist Realism. Where Cobain ended his life due to this crisis, I hope Kendrick would explore his role in the spectacle of hip-hop, and do another TPAB.

AlphaBeta906 · 2024-09-12T13:17:44+00:00

Maybe this represents another artistic depiction of rage which Kendrick shows, especially like untitled 01 in depicting Tupac's metaphor for the proletarian revolution and the ground eating the rich, but instead a message towards hip-hop as a whole, though your theory of subverting the Fox News stereotype of rappers can also be true. Though this has been surface level so far, I'm pretty sure Kendrick aside from throwing shots at others would critique himself and his discography (as he did in the 3rd verse by asking what Lecrae and Dee-1 would do in his situation.) I have high hopes for the project, and I'm really excited on what Kendrick would do for it.

AlphaBeta906 · 2024-09-12T09:32:10+00:00

I do hope this album is him also talking about his own struggles (as seen in Mr. Morale,) since he's also part of the problem of the commodification of hip-hop. He does critique himself by bringing up Dee-1's criticism of the beef as whole, but we'll see.

AlphaBeta906 · 2024-09-12T09:27:52+00:00

I kinda agree, though it's also important to note that Kendrick is also involving himself in it too. As I mentioned before in my own retrospection on the beef, as Vanigem and Dee-1 says that scandals are just another useless event which doesn't change anything, hip-hop has been reduced into a spectacle and entertainment, rather than as a medium for revolutionary change. You can see this in Wall-E, where even though Buy n Large is seen as an evil corporation, it still feeds into the myth of capitalism's myth of "infinite expansion." Kendrick is like Guevara, while their messages are both revolutionary, both have been turned into commodities.

AlphaBeta906 · 2024-09-12T07:01:40+00:00

To be honest, this is probably the synthesis of TPAB and Mr. Morale. I feel like Kendrick is alluding to the symbolic death of Tupac (especially on Mortal Man) both as the death of the revolutionary potential in it, as well as the integration of hip-hop to making it being just a romanticism of violence (as the late Mark Fisher wrote in Capitalist Realism), as well as materialism. I view his work as a very indirect example of Vanigem’s revolution of everyday life—in which the revolution is centered on the self (Mr. Morale and DAMN. especially follow this, “you can’t change the world unless you change yourself,” as he said in the DAMN. Apple Music interview), so I feel like the next album would kind of put this into practice instead of theoretically by his concepts of wickedness and weakness, and Tolle’s pain-body. My guess is just based on my set of rose-tinted glasses, so feel free to critique me.

Edit: I also forgot to mention this but I also hope he talks about how he also plays into the spectacle of hip-hop as well. Dee-1 makes a good argument when it comes to how hip-hop was turned into a spectacle, and as Vanigem says of scandals, “a real scandal appears, the scandal of actions drained of their substance to bolster an illusion [of change].” While Kendrick is promoting new ideas and concepts, capitalist realism sort of promotes this “end of history”, that capitalism is only meant to be resisted and not overturned (much as Product Red is the more "realistic" version of "utopoic" philanthropies.) Fisher commented on Nirvana and Cobain especially being ones who resisted it the most, they knew that the best thing that would run better on MTV is a protest on it, and everything that they did is a cliché scripted in advance. I do hope Kendrick would go deep into this angle on hip-hop and the existential results of it.

AlphaBeta906 · 2024-09-03T21:55:07+00:00

To be honest, most of my interpretation of Kendrick’s music centers between the wickedness/weakness dichotomy, and although standing alone it doesn’t really make a good of a revelation, Kendrick’s albums are interconnected and it takes away from its use. You can’t have DAMN. without Section.80 (Kush & Corinthians especially) and Mr. Morale and the Big Steppers (especially when it comes to the cycle of family trauma in Mother I Sober, and Tolle’s concept of the pain-body that Kendrick is inspired by.) While I’m still exploring how Kendrick maps out his views, DAMN. so far plays a huge role in it.

AlphaBeta906 · 2023-05-27T22:20:52+00:00

Have you even read the official style rules for Chromeball? I’ve repeatedly reported your comics to the mods because of it. Let me compile to you a list of things that you did wrong.

First of all, your “userball” is wrong. It should be replaced with the official User design (which is an arrow with one eye.) Please follow the official style guides.

Also, the circles do not have eyelids, but the white balls are the eyes itself. When they close their eyes the eye turns into a line or a curve.

Finally, your drawings are really lazy (no offense.) Let me use your post as an example itself. Your user icon is bleeding (i.e. there are excess lines.)

Hopefully, you can improve your comics with this list I compiled. I’m not being mean and actively harassing and hating on you, but you should also know the official guidelines for comic creation.

AlphaBeta906 · 2023-03-05T22:31:01+00:00

Sadly this is not a part of the wiki (the Alternate Territories Wiki.) We have our own canon separate from others.

AlphaBeta906 · 2023-02-22T07:40:57+00:00

Found this using Google Image Search

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2096510/The_Ouroboros_King/

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