Mooney was encouraged, so he wrote a blog post about the lesson. Around Mooney's classroom, posters of Morrison quotes and Lamar's lyrics are paired with images of Trayvon Martin and Michael Brown. They wrote essays, poetry and rap lyrics inspired by the book and album. "And so Kendrick is speaking to that same concept with the song 'Complexion.' He's speaking to that same idea of pushing back against the dominant narrative that there's this mythological norm that is considered good and beautiful and valuable." "The main character that my students spoke about, Pecola Breedlove, she's experiencing internalized oppression," Mooney explains. He's also a graduate student at Teachers College, Columbia University, working with a program exploring the use of hip-hop in education. "I was listening and I was like, wow, there are just so many themes that are the same," Mooney says. The book is about a young black girl who yearns to have blue eyes. That's why Brian Mooney decided to use To Pimp a Butterfly with his freshman English students as they studied Toni Morrison's novel, The Bluest Eye. It's a complex, multilayered piece of work that wrestles with themes around blackness and beauty. His latest album, To Pimp a Butterfly, came out earlier this year and debuted at No.
Lamar is on top of the rap game at the moment. He seems almost as excited as the students, who just might be having their best day of school. The 27-year-old rapper has a broad smile on his face. He glides in with crisp white kicks, a grey long-sleeve shirt, and hair twisting every which way. At around midday Monday at High Tech High School in North Bergen, N.J., about 40 students are crammed into a small classroom, anxiously waiting for Kendrick Lamar to walk into the room.