Psalms of My People: A Story of Black Liberation as Told through Hip-Hop

Summary

If you want to understand the Black experience in the US, you must understand hip-hop, and Psalms of My People is your guide.

Treating hip-hop like sacred scripture, lenny duncan traces its history—the artists, their lyrics, and the cultural context—to reveal its role 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.

“duncan weaves together hip-hop, scripture, history, and their own experiences with soft tenderness and sharp critique. It’s both delicious and, at times, bitter; full of the contradictions we see reflected in all sacred texts and pregnant with possibilities for transformation.”—Elle Dowd, pastor, activist, and author of Baptized in Tear Gas: From White Moderate to Abolitionist