April 2018

Kendrick Lamar became the first non-classical, non-jazz musician to win the Pulitzer Prize for Music, awarded for DAMN. The prize recognized hip-hop as a serious literary and artistic form for the first time in the award's hundred-year history, a landmark moment for Black American creative expression.

Kendrick Lamar became the first musician outside classical and jazz to win the Pulitzer Prize for Music, awarded for DAMN. The Pulitzer board called it a collection of urgent portraits of modern African American life. The award marked a formal recognition by the literary establishment that hip-hop had achieved the highest artistic status.

"DAMN." becomes the first non-classical, non-jazz work to win the Pulitzer Prize for Music.