Kendrick Lamar Wins Pulitzer Prize

Rapper Kendrick Lamer made history yesterday by becoming the first non-classical or jazz artist to win the Pulitzer Prize for music, not to mention being the most commercially successful musician to ever receive the award.

The 30-year-old Lamar won for his Grammy-winning album “Damn”, an album the Pulitzer board called  “a virtuosic song collection unified by its vernacular authenticity and rhythmic dynamism that offers affecting vignettes capturing the complexity of modern African-American life.” Besides the respect and acclaim the award brings, Lamar will also receive a $15,000 cash prize.

Lamar has been around since his 2011 album “Section.80,” and since then he’s received numerous awards for his work, including 12 Grammys. Critics and fans alike have taken to his music that is a mix of hip-hop, rap, spoken word, jazz, soul, funk, poetry and African sounds. His album “Damn” is his fourth, and it was released in 2017. It won 5 Grammys, including best rap album, and was considered the top album of the year by several critics. 

The Pulitzer’s used to only give the award to classical music, and it wasn’t until 1997 when Wynton Marsalis won that jazz was finally given one. This year’s finalists included Lamar, Michael Gilbertson’s “Quartet,” and Ted Hearne’s “Sound from the Bench.”