Kendrick Lamar has become the first Hip Hop artist to ever receive the Pulitzer Prize in Music. K. Dot earned the highly-sought after accolade for his Grammy Award-winning album, DAMN.
The Pulitzer Prize in Music is typically awarded to classical artists and jazz musicians. The significance of Lamar’s critically-acclaimed album granted his work to be among the likes of MacArthur Fellow Julia Wolfe and last year’s winner, Chinese composer Du Yun.
Pulitzer describes DAMN. 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.” In HipHopDX’s original review of the album, we noted that “In all, DAMN. makes baseless any claims that Kendrick Lamar isn’t an all-time great.”
The LP was awarded a 4.9 out of 5 rating.
DAMN. was released in April 2017 and closed out the year as the #1 album of the year on the Billboard charts. It was also named as DX’s Rap Album of the Year and helped Lamar secure Rapper of the Year in our 2017 Year-End Awards.
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That’s a good look!
He should’ve received the Pulitzer for TPAB. Now THAT’s a dope album. DAMN is mediocre. Props though.
understand where you comin from but I appreciate the prize more for damn, just cuz damn was such a gritty album @ times…
nice
Who the fuck cares about overrated Kendumb Lame-ar? Drizzaveli is #1 for 12 weeks in a row now. He dethroned his own song on the charts. Drake don’t care about some white man awards, he breaks records left and right, check the numbers. Something Kendumb can’t do and will never do. Real ting ya kno? #DrakeIsLoveDrakeIsLife #DrizzySZN #NiceForWhat #Scorpion
You sound like a 14 year old white girl
Go jerk off to your drake poster bitch ass butt pirate.
Win for HipHop !!!
Damn is the best album I’ve heard in 33 years, congrats!
well deserved…to this day I still can’t name a better album than DAMN (for this century)
Tpab is millions times better*
damn >>> my favorite album
I can admit it
Legend.
And you’re a fa ggot who raved about a lil Xan album. Kys
“virtuosic song collection unified by its vernacular authenticity and rhythmic dynamism that offers affecting vignettes capturing the complexity of modern African-American life.”……deam
quickly becoming the most overrated artist in hip hop. over hyped and overrated. sad really because the kid is dope and has alot of skill. much respect to him. but damn….
Kenny would tell you himself that reasonable doubt, illmatic, blueprint are better….
Please name me the best quotable on DAMN, and I will respond with a more notable line from the albums above. Or beats even…
Maybe as a 31 year old, i’ve been spoiled.
I agree, but all of DUCKWORTH. is quotable.
I think of Reasonable Doubt as a non-fiction story told in an exaggerated way to help sells. Same with Blueprint. DAMN. is this generations Illmatic, raw and unforgiving.
You have no idea what you are talking about Gokudo. How about the entire track ‘Regrets’ on Reasonable Doubt? Some of the best wordplay and imagery of any hip hop track. Or D’Evils even. You just listen to the radio hits or have you actually LISTENED to Reasonable Doubt?
You didn’t even read my post correctly. I never challenged you gentlemen about Jay’s albums having some good or even great songs and lyrics on them, although I do find Reasonable Doubt rather overrated. Make no mistake, I loved a few tracks on it (though the very strong production team is also very helpful). BUT Doubt also had a couple of embarrassingly commercial/cheesy tracks and individual lyrics, and that problem would only get worse with the next several albums before Black. Besides the lines I already mentioned I could quote literally dozens of times and even a few full songs where he was just coming with some lame WASSUP MOMMY I’M SIPPIN’ HENNY IN MY VERSACE sh!t, which was not only already lame enough in itself but pushed trends in the industry of many other artists spitting the same kind of lyrics to try to copy his success with it. And the fact that Lamar managed to have very successful radio songs that were classic like Bitch Don’t Kill My Vibe and Alright, or even for the weaker ones still fully respectable only makes more evident now that Jay had no excuse for how bad or how often his worst moments came no matter how great the best moments were.
In order to receive the Pulitzer Award, the work has to be entered for consideration. Which is then nominated by a “jury”. So whoever had the idea to enter this album, if not Kendrick himself, is a vital member of the team. Well deserved!
I’m sure nobody in Nas camp or anybody at Columbia even had a thought to try for the Pulitzer.. Illmatic is probably the best written album ever.
we all have our opinions on what couldve made it there first but this is still a dope achievement for hip hop… No need to hate
dope…lets keep it 100 though– Tpab should have won this when it came out…way more social commentary on the “complexity of modern African-American life” lol…all those SAT words doesn’t dictate accuracy lol..DAMN is dope but Tpab was one of the realest albums ever…too real for them I guess lol.
Congrats King Kendrick!
TPAB>>>DAMN. Write prize, wrong album
TPAB was far superior to DAMN. It’s probably a make up prize for TPAB.
Best songs on DAMN
DNA
HUMBLE
FEAR
DUCKWORK
the rest are mediocre at best
A historic W for an all time great. Greatness breeds envy. Lots of butthurt about Kendrick’s success, but none of it matters because when it’s all said and done, Kendrick will be considered one of the GOATS.
Congrats Kendrick. Classic album. Love seeing the haters mad lol
This is bullshit. Lamar doesn’t deserve this award. What has he done? What about groups like public enemy? They should have been the first rap act to win the award. Public enemy and others have been talking about black politics before lamar was even born. Lamar does one soundtrack for a GREAT MOVIE then he gets an award. His music isn’t all that. It is just the best of this generation. Any fool can have a number 1 hit album. I ve listen to his albums before but they seem ok at best. His records are better than drake, lil wayne, lil pump and others. Many great mcs should have won this award years ago. This is just another way to disrespect hip hop. Lamar isn’t the first to talk about black life in america.
Pulitzer’s are given out to artist who submit there work for conisideration. As I said below, there are many classic and groundbreaking hip hop albums.. I’m surprised nobody has mentioned Big L – Lifestylez of the Poor and Dangerous, but that’s today’s world.. ignorant trolls who want to downplay this GENIUS business move for the hip hop culture.. this will be the first of many hip hop submissions.. just do research before you run you mouth with an abundance of undeserved confidence
first off, hip hop on top sounds way to bitter.
Public Enemy, Tupac, ATCQ, etc, are the trail blazers. They made this possible. That is how it goes with all things new, introduced to the world, you need people to lay the ground work. Bunch of racist ass white rich people aren’t giving public enemy nothing in the early 90’s. Smarten up.
Second off, big ups to Kendrick, congrats.
Congrats to Flava Flav for winning the Nobel Peace Prize.
Think about how miserable you have to be if you’re crying about Kendrick making hiphop history by winning the Pulitzer. He’s the best rapper in the game right now. 3 Classics in a row. These haters act like his success is an attack on their favorite rappers’ career. Mad because he’s getting the recognition he deserves. Lol
I’m not mad, I’m just not part of the retarded masses that will drop to my knees because the media tells me to. The album fucking sucks regardless of how many awards it gets.
Glad to be here