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Date of Award

2026

Document Type

Campus Access Master's Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science in Rhetoric, Theory and Culture (MS)

Administrative Home Department

Department of Humanities

Advisor 1

Jennifer Nish

Committee Member 1

Oren Abeles

Committee Member 2

Ketty Thomas

Abstract

This thesis explores the meanings conveyed through the relationship between the lyrics and non-linguistic elements of Kendrick Lamar’s album Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers, specifically in relation to vulnerability, connection, and healing. Additionally, it seeks to understand how the album operates as a rhetoric of healing and resistance. While the album acts as a narrative for Lamar’s journey towards healing, it also serves as a guide for others to find healing from trauma. I situate this album in what Tamika Carey calls “rhetorics of healing,” defined as “a set of persuasive discourses and performances writers wield to… follow the steps to ideological, communicative, or behavioral transformation the writer considers essential to wellness” (5). These rhetorics “[T]each individuals the ways of knowing, being, and acting that enable them to reread their pasts, revise their sense of self, and resume progress towards their life goals,” to “help ensure individual and community survival” (6). Located within the intersections of disability studies, Black rhetoric and rhetorical healing, this project builds on scholarship surrounding hip-hop’s critique of systemic racism and fills a gap in research regarding hip-hop as a rhetoric of healing. Using thematic analysis through a Black feminist framework, the analysis shows how community is incorporated as both mode and message on the album through featured artists, the sonic element of footsteps, and the rhetorical devices of call and response, Signifyin(g), narrative sequencing, and performative utterance. Similarly, it analyzes how the album acts as a vulnerable retelling of Lamar’s trauma, coping strategies, and subsequent healing to showcase vulnerability’s power and significance. By emphasizing the importance of community, vulnerability, and healing, the album creates space for listeners to question their cultural positioning and begin their own self-examination and healing work. While it conveys a universal call for healing, the album stresses the importance of healing for Black communities and Black men in particular. Mr. Morale and the Big Steppers performs healing through personal narratives and specific rhetorical techniques to innovate a broader public discourse on healing.

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