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Compton, Los Angeles rapper, Kendrick Lamar, has won the Pulitzer Prize for music for his album “DAMN.”
The 30-year-old becomes the first rapper to win the prestigious award. In January, he won five Grammy awards for the same album.
The Pulitzers is the most prestigious honours in American journalism and the arts which started in 1917. Lamar’s Pulitzer win marked a significant departure as previous honorees have been drawn from the worlds of classical music and jazz. Previous winners of the award from music are jazz musicians Wynton Marsalis and Ornette Coleman.
Lamar’s fusion of jazz, poetry and blues with social themes and love songs has made him one of the most innovative rappers of his generation.
The Pulitzer board on Monday hailed “DAMN.”, which was released in April 2017, 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.”
“DAMN.,” Lamar’s third album, topped the Billboard 200 album charts for three weeks on its release last year.