Grammy-winning rapper once wore $1.5M crown of thorns in bloody women’s rights protest
Heading into Super Bowl weekend, all eyes will be on Kendrick Lamar, the Grammy-winning rapper who is set to become the first solo hip-hop artist to headline the halftime show.
At a pregame press conference Thursday in New Orleans, Lamar, 37, didn’t reveal much about his upcoming performance on the world’s biggest stage. He is fresh off a triumphant Grammys, where the rapper garnered both song and record of the year for “Not Like Us.”
“Being in the now and being just locked-in to how I feel and the energy I have now, that’s the L.A. energy for me,” he said. “That’s something I wanted to carry over to New Orleans and for the world to see. This is me. This is Kendrick Lamar, 37 years old, and I still feel like I’m elevating, I’m still on a journey.”
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While it’s not Lamar’s first Super Bowl performance — he took part in a star-studded lineup that included Dr. Dre, Eminem and 50 Cent in 2022 — it marks the first time he’ll have the stage all to himself.
“It puts the culture at the forefront, where it needs to be, and not minimized to just a catchy song or verse,” he told reporters. “This is a true art form, so to represent it on this type of stage is like everything that I’ve worked for and everything that I believe in as far as the culture.”
Known for unabashedly proclaiming Christ in his music, Lamar has spoken publicly about reverence for the “fear of God” and won the Pulitzer Prize for his album DAMN., released in April 2017, which contains faith and religious themes throughout the record.
The Compton, California, native also proclaimed his Christian faith in the introduction to his album Good Kid, M.A.A.D City, saying: “Lord God, I come to you a sinner, and I humbly repent for my sins. I believe that Jesus is Lord. I believe that you raised Him from the dead. I will ask that Jesus will come into my life and be my Lord and Savior. I receive Jesus to take control of my life that I may live for Him from this day forth. Thank you, Lord Jesus, for saving me with your precious blood. In Jesus’ name, Amen.”
But Lamar has also courted controversy among some in the Christian community for his 2022 performance at the Glastonbury Festival, during which he wore a diamond-encrusted crown of thorns and referred to Christ Jesus as “one of the greatest prophets that ever walked the earth.”
He also closed out that show with what CNN dubbed a “blood-soaked plea for women’s rights,” in which he performed the song “Savior” from his album Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers. During the performance, Lamar repeatedly chanted, “They judge you/ they judge Christ/ Godspeed for women’s rights” as blood appeared to drip from his head as he wore the crown of thorns in an apparent protest against the loss of abortion rights due to the overturning of Roe v Wade.
WATCH:
Absolutely staggering, what a weekend pic.twitter.com/hn1Q0bb4mm
— Jonathan Dean (@JonathanDean_) June 26, 2022
One of the most widely recognized religious symbols in the world, the crown of thorns represents the headpiece that Roman soldiers gave to Jesus before He was crucified and mocked as the “King of the Jews.”
Lamar’s DAMN., which sold more than 60,000 copies in its first week and soon became the rapper’s third Billboard No. 1 release, drew critical acclaim for its exploration of faith and the ills of a racially polarized American culture.
The album also marked Lamar’s most public alignment with the Black Hebrew Israelite movement, which claims its adherents are the true Jewish people of Israel and “white Jews” are imposters because they do not ethnically resemble the physical characteristics consistent with the pre-diaspora Hebrews.
With lyrics like “I’m an Israelite/ Don’t call me black no mo’/ That word is only a color/ It ain’t fact no mo'” and a commentary from Larma’s cousin, Carl Duckworth, who claims that “the so-called blacks, Hispanics and Native American Indians are the true children of Israel,” the album is perhaps Lamar’s clearest faith expression in his discography.
In the song “To Pimp a Butterfly” on the GNX album, Lamar also wrote about a fictional encounter between Satan and God in which Lamar appears to identify with Satan and suggests a sort of Christian universalism in which even the devil himself will be saved.
