Psalms of My People: A Story of Black Liberation as Told through Hip-Hop
About this ebook
James Baldwin, in his famous talk "The Struggle for the Artist's Integrity," suggests that "the poets (by which I mean all artists) are finally the only people who know the truth about us." And to understand the truth about the history of Black peoples in America, argues lenny duncan, we must look to the modern Black poet: the hip-hop artist.
In Psalms of My People, artist, scholar, and activist lenny duncan treats the work of hip-hop artists from the last several decades--from N.W.A, Tupac, and Biggie to Lauryn Hill, Jay-Z, and Kendrick Lamar--like sacred scripture. Their songs and lyrics are given full exegetical treatment--a critical and contextual interpretation of text--and are beautifully illustrated, with a blend of ancient and modern art styles illuminating every page.
All the while, duncan traces the history of hip-hop, revealing it as a conduit to tell the modern story of Black liberation in this country, following the bloody trail from the end of the Civil Rights Era through the day George Floyd was sacrificed on the streets of America.
"Who else but the hip-hop artist," asks Duncan, "has embodied the cries, pain, and secret concrete ? Whose art? Our art. Whose story is written in the book of life with crimson lines dipped in a well that is 400+ years deep? Whose story? Our story. For whom does God bring down empires? Us."
About the author
lenny duncan (they/them) is a writer, speaker, scholar, and media producer working at the forefront of racial justice in America. lenny is the author of Dear Church, United States of Grace, and Dear Revolutionaries, and a co-creator of the podcast BlackBerryJams with PRX. A PhD student in historical and cultural studies of religion, lenny is currently researching what they call "a people's history of magic." lenny is originally from West Philadelphia, has hitchhiked thousands of miles on American byways, and makes their home up and down the I-5 with their found family, and in the East Bay area of San Francisco for research.
