If the Book of Revelation is anti-imperial resistance literature of the first order, hip-hop music is its contemporary equivalent - with Kendrick Lamar as one of its most politically sensitized "prophets." I will explore the intersections,...
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Index theologicus der Universitätsbibliothek Tübingen
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If the Book of Revelation is anti-imperial resistance literature of the first order, hip-hop music is its contemporary equivalent - with Kendrick Lamar as one of its most politically sensitized "prophets." I will explore the intersections, commonalities, and divergences between Revelation 17-18 and rapper Kendrick's "For Sale? (Interlude)," especially regarding notions of empire, gender, and sexuality. I will draw connections between the characters of "For Sale" - Kendrick and Lucy - and those of Revelation 17-18 - John of Patmos and Babylon. This analysis will reveal the relationship between anti-imperial rhetoric and the troubling "effemination" of empire. I contend that Babylon and Lucy are both figures "in drag," dis/closing the prevailing imperial and misogynistic forces of their respective cultures. This queer interpretation, playing off Catherine Keller's and Stephen D. Moore's reading of the text and J. Jack Halberstam's study of drag kings, seeks to unveil the hypermasculine performances in both Revelation and contemporary hip-hop culture.