Compton rap artist Kendrick Lamar won the Pulitzer Prize for music on Monday, the first time a hip-hop figure has ever won the award, and a remarkable capstone in a career that brought the young MC known as “K-Dot” from the streets of his city's “Bompton” westside to the esteemed ranks of one of the highest creative honors in the United States.
Lamar won a prize that is usually awarded to talented but relatively obscure composers of classical and experimental jazz genres in music. The Pulitzer board awarded Lamar's 2017 album DAMN, a follow-up to his searing 2015 release To Pimp a Butterfly. In DAMN, the now-maturing lyricist reflects on broad themes of adulthood, organized around tracks such as “Humble,” “Loyalty,” “Lust,” “Blood.”
Watch for the bookmarked moment as Pulitzer Administrator Dana Canedy announces Lamar's prize, last in the Pulitzer announcement on Monday at the journalism school on the campus of Columbia University:
Kendrick Lamar first captured critical and widespread attention for his 2012 major-label release Good Kid, M.A.A.D. City, an almost Romeo & Juliet-like fable about a young man battling the allure of the gangster life on the streets. He's won multiple Grammy awards including Best Rap Album for DAMN (2018) and To Pimp A Butterfly (2016).