Through a "tag-and-modify" protein chemical modification strategy, we site-selectively phosphorylated the activation loop of protein kinase p38 alpha. Phosphorylation at natural (180) and unnatural (172) sites created two pure phospho-forms. p38 alpha bearing only a single phosphocysteine (pCys) as a mimic of pThr at 180 was sufficient to switch the kinase to an active state, capable of processing natural protein substrate ATF2; 172 site phosphorylation did not. In this way, we chemically recapitulated triggering of a relevant segment of the MAPK-signaling pathway in vitro. This allowed detailed kinetic analysis of global and stoichiometric phosphorylation events catalyzed by p38 alpha and revealed that site 180 is a sufficient activator alone and engenders dominant mono-phosphorylation activity. Moreover, a survey of kinase inhibition using inhibitors with different (Type I/II) modes (including therapeutically relevant) revealed unambiguously that Type II inhibitors inhibit phosphorylated p38 alpha and allowed discovery of a predictive kinetic analysis based on cooperativity to distinguish Type I vs II.