Rapper Kendrick Lamar has become the first rapper to win a Pulitzer for his Grammy winning album Damn.
The Pulitzer Prize website described the 30 year old’s album 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.”
Lamar has often drawn praise for the way he uses deep lyrical content and delivers politically charged performances through a mix of hip-hop, spoken word, poetry and African sounds.
Since first achieving success on the music scene through his album Section.80, Lamar has gained tremendous commercial success and critical acclaim and has so far gone on to win 12 Grammy awards.
He has also gone on to release albums such as Good Kid, M.A.A.D City, To Pimp a Butterfly and Damn, which have done well and featured Lamar writing about issues such as blackness, police brutality, perseverance, survival and self-worth.
