On April 16th, Kendrick Lamar became the first recording hip-hop artist to win a Pulitzer Prize for music for his album DAMN.
Lamar’s win has triggered many different emotions from all types of music lovers, including excitement for future Pulitzer awards and confusion as to why he is only the first rapper to win the award.
Lamar fan David Lewin-Rowan questions “why Beyonce or Jay Z haven’t won a Pulitzer,” but [is] still “extremely excited” for Lamar and the future of hip-hop.
Many people believe that this is just the start of an era of mainstream recognition for hip-hop artist and see that people can no longer ignore the lyrical genius of many hip-hop artists.
Senior Reece Chang adds, “Kendrick has some amazing lyrics that were clearly thought out and really make an impact on people. I also believe that music makes an impact on everyone and a hip-hop artist finally being recognized for a Pulitzer is a big deal.”
There were several rounds of voting involved in the process, and the judges were torn and had several different outlooks on why they voted for DAMN. to win the award.
Music enthusiast David Anhalt gave his more expert opinion, offering that “the judges have a long process when nominating and final voting, [which includes] the involvement of different people with a major divide in music backgrounds. The fact that they understood the amazing music that Kendrick has been producing is truly inspiring.”
Music is influenced by so many different things and people and there is a huge involvement of different people to produce a song or an album. For Lamar, this included producers, writers, and other musicians for collaboration.
Chang, a huge fan of the album, loves the collaboration, stating “I love the songs that have other artists; I think it adds a great dynamic to the album.”
