Kendrick Lamar Wins Pulitzer Prize
In addition to recognizing journalism excellence, the Pulitzer Prize also awards the best of literature, fiction, history, drama and music. One unexpected winner this year turned heads by making history.
Winning a Pulitzer for his 2017 album “DAMN.”, Compton-born artist Kendrick Lamar was the first rapper to earn the award. His album was also the first non-classical or jazz work to win for music. Consisting of 14 tracks and 55 minutes, Lamar’s album is filled with lyrics that spotlight greater societal issues. This lyrical genius found power in sharing his and many others’ realities during a time when hip-hop music was becoming mainstream culture.
USA Today reports, the pulitzer committee celebrated Lamar’s work as “a virtuosic song collection unified by its vernacular authenticity and rhythmic dynamism that offers affecting vignettes capturing the complexity of modern African-American life.”
In 2017, Lamar won BET’s Album of the Year, NAACP Image Awards’ Outstanding Album and American Music Awards’ Favorite Rap/Hip-Hop Album, and this year, he added iHeartRadio’s Hip-Hop Album of the Year and the Grammy’s Best Rap Album to his winning streak.
If you haven’t already, take a listen, it’s more than worth it.
