Kendrick Lamar Wins Pulitzer

Famous artist, Kendrick Lamar was recently awarded with this year’s Pulitzer music prize for his album DAMN.
Released April of last year, DAMN has sold over 3.5 million albums including digital streams.
Kendrick Lamar’s win marks history as the first rap album to receive an award, also outside of classical or jazz music.
The Guardian writes, “The Pulitzer board starchily described DAMN as “a virtuosic song collection, unified by its vernacular authenticity and rhythmic dynamism that offers affecting vignettes capturing the complexity of African-American life.” The tracklist descends, “BLOOD., DNA., YAH., ELEMENT., FEEL., LOYALTY. (Ft. Rihanna), PRIDE., HUMBLE., LUST., LOVE., (Ft. Zacari), XXX (Ft. U2), FEAR., GOD., DUCKWORTH.
Although the album was initially released in the original form, Lamar later re released the album in reverse. The Guardian went on, “If Lamar’s work has a central theme, it’s human fallibility and contradiction: “I got power, poison, pain, and joy inside my DNA,” he raps on DAMN’s most intense track, DNA.”
Upon the initial announcement of the award winner, Terrence Henderson, record executive of Top Dawg Entertainment took to Twitter to commend the artist. “Pulitzer Prize winner Kdot from Compton. I bet not ever hear one of you ni**as speak with anything less than respect in your mouth for Kendrick Lamar,” he stated.
Rihanna also took to social media to congratulate Lamar. She put out a cartoon image of Lamar and herself, captioning the photo, “Congrats to my boy KungFuKenny on making history and winning such a prestigious award like a Pulitzer! Keep showing the kids that anything is possible”.
DAMN’s artistry in connection to its audience was reflected in the votes. The New York Times cites, “When someone mentioned Mr. Lamar’s “DAMN.,” there was “quite a lot of enthusiasm for it,” Mr. Hadju [Pulitzer music prize judge] said, though some members of the jury were less familiar with hip-hop than others.” After hearing the album, there was a unanimous choice from the jury.
At just 30 years old, Kendrick Lamar is climbing to new heights of success with time. With the record setting award for DAMN as the first hip hop album to win a Pulitzer music award, it has potentially opened the door for more artists to receive accolades outside their typical genre.