LAMAR RAPS HIS WAY TO PULITZER
NEW YORK Kendrick Lamar has won the Pulitzer Prize for music, making history as the first non-classical or jazz artist to win the prestigious award.
The revered rapper is also the most commercially successful musician to receive the award, usually reserved for critically acclaimed classical acts who don’t live on the pop charts.
The 30-year-old won the prize for DAMN., his raw and powerful Grammywinning album. The Pulitzer board said Monday the album is a “virtuosic song collection” and said it captures “the modern African-American life.” He will win $15,000.
The Pulitzer board has awarded special honours to Bob Dylan, Duke Ellington, George Gershwin, Thelonious Monk, John Coltrane and Hank Williams, but a popular figure like Lamar has never won the prize for music.