Rapper Kendrick Lamar, in a watershed moment for the Pulitzer Prizes, accepted the award for music Wednesday in a ceremony at Columbia University. Lamar, the first musician outside the classical and jazz genres to receive the honor, was cited for his album “DAMN.” In making the presentation, Columbia President Lee Bollinger described Lamar’s fourth LP as a “virtuosic song collection unified by its vernacular authenticity that offers affecting vignettes capturing the complexity of modern African American life.” Pulitzer winners do not make acceptance speeches, but in a Facebook Live video on the Pulitzer Prizes page, Lamar told Sree Sreenivasan, “I’ve been writing my whole life, so to get this type of recognition ― it’s beautiful.” The Pulitzer Prizes date to 1917 and honor outstanding work in journalism and the arts, letters and music.
Source: Kendrick Lamar Accepts Groundbreaking Pulitzer Prize
