The nature of the Oakland rapper's Christian references is typically indirect, such as, "Deuteronomy says that we all been cursed." This idea of a mass curse occurs in Kendrick's single "Watch The Party Die" (dropped on Instagram on September 11, 2024). Before analyzing this single, we must note that despite Kendrick's Christian messaging, he is viewed not as a Christian rapper but as a secular artist. In "Watch The Party Die," Kendrick points out that he wishes to be a Christian artist but is held back by his tendencies. 

Determinism has not favored Kendrick; he has been cursed: "Damned if I do, if I don't." Yet, it seems he has found a means to use his free will to break the hex placed upon him. However, it cannot be broken in the manner in which he desires. Kendrick wants to break his and the world's curse via love, but "love sometimes gotta result in violence." Kendrick thinks he can break the world's" curses, which is Kendrick'sworld's very curse. For too long, Kendrick has stood on the sidelines and watched the world live through its imprecation. "Goddam us all," he believes gnostically; he can redeem the world from this God-given, global curse. 

But this very enactment of violence would counter his Christian ideals, "I want to be empathetic, my heart like Dee-1." Kendrick has long existed in a spiritual conflict between his belief in his earthly mission and his desire to be redeemed by God. Kendrick wishes he could simply follow the way of Christ akin to his fellow rappers Lecrae and Dee-1, but this is not so simple for him. Those two benefit from being able to focus on their spirituality. Those they help achieve spiritual fulfillment are a beneficial byproduct of their spiritual journeys, "I wonder what Lecrae would do/Hopefully seek the hand of God and tell em' that he's incapable/But truthfully, I'm nobody to judge." But Kendrick states of himself, a prophet/I answer to Metatron and Gabriel." Determinism cursed Kendrick into the weight and burdens of being a prophet. He could not deny the calls of God or his angels. It does not matter "what Lecrae would do," like the Judges before him, Kendrick must be a prophet of violence.

In the cycle of Judges, Israel sins against God, Israel, as a result, is conquered, and a judge comes to save Israel, just for Israel to sin again, restarting the cycle. "You saw it in the Ten Commandments when the shepherd left there was nonsense abound," and Kendrick sees himself as a shepherd, of hip-hop specifically but maybe the world more broadly. When Kendrick took an album hiatus between DAMN and Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers, he saw what was in his eyes the emergence of a whole lot of malicious nonsense. For example, Kendrick says, "They like taking innocent lives…they glorify scamming…pushin' propaganda…the culture bred with carnivores…they eat your face of this, it is time to recruit an army to redeem hip-hop at least and the world at most. Kendrick sees that there is no more time for waiting, time to get these devils out the way…We settle hard disputes today." Kendrick does not see hope for the modern culture of Israel found in hip-hop to be redeemable; this connection is understandable if you know that the Hoteps/Black Israelites influence Kendrick. That aside, there is nothing the culture can do to save itself, so "We start over, it's really that time…I see a new Earth."

This desire of Kendrick to renew the Earth is found in The Book of Revelation, "a new heaven and a new earth'," for the first heaven and the first Earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband." Relating Kendrick to his biblical desire, he would wish to be the final judge of hip-hop able to start the culture anew in such a manner that there would only be, "beautiful people makin' humanity work." Here, Kendrick is deep into his savior complex, which had been previously abandoned on Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers. Yet, no matter how badly they wish, one cannot leave their God-given call. Here, Kendrick may misconceive the nature of being a Christian rapper. No, Kendrick is not a Christian rapper calling for peace on Earth and a simple love of Christ. Instead, Kendrick's status as a Christian rapper is complicated; he is ordered to follow God's violent calls against the nonbelievers, "The graveyard is company… Let's kill the followers." Kendrick also takes on a Zoroastrian influence when he states, "I gotta burn it down to build it up," drawing up that faith's ideas of baptism and renewal by fire. Kendrick is an instrument of God that is ignored by the hand of peace but used only by his hand of war. We see here Kendrick does not need to desire to be a Christian rapper; he simply is unable to follow the pacifist Christianity of Christ but rather is bound to God's so-called Old Testament tendencies or the gnostic false God of Yaldabaoth. 

To be a Christian rapper is not to be Christ himself; it doesn't matter if "Christ ain't watch the party die, He died instead of it." To be a Christian is to follow, not be Christ. To be a Christian is to be Christ-like once again, not Christ himself, because this is not a possibility. Even Christ was prone to violence, as Dee-1 points to, "Was good Kendrick, we flippin' tables." We can ignore prior speculation and view Kendrick as a rapper who follows Christ. 

Still, Kendrick desires to be the type of Christian rapper embodied by Lecrae and Dee-1. While we could place Kendrick in the ranks of Christian rap, he is certainly not a traditional Christian rapper. What makes Kendrick a Christian rapper is that he follows the God of the Bible to the best of his understanding. Kendrick's very tendencies are not what holds him back from being a Christian rapper but are the things that make him a Christian rapper of a different sort. Kendrick's Christian rap is not the message of the gospels but the Christianity of Deuteronomy, Judges, and The Book of Revelation. Dee-1 sides with Kendrick on being a Christian rapper and his form of Christian rap, a soldier for life, stop playin' dumb, it's good versus evil It's only two sides…I work for God.

It is far too easy to reduce Christian rap to one wholesale brand of Christianity. Yet, through Kendrick's music, we can see that Christian rap can exist in a sectarian manner.