New Urban CULTURE- Rapper Kendrick Lamar Wins the 2018 Pulitzer Prize

Hip-Hop artist Kendrick Lamar makes history as the first non-classical, non-jazz composer to win a Pulitzer Prize for Music

No stranger to music accolades as a 12 time Grammy award winner, rapper/composer Kendrick Lamar has just been awarded the 2018 Pulitzer Prize in Music for his current album entitled, "DAMN". This artistic distinction makes Lamar the first non-classical or non-jazz artist to win the prestigious honor in the award's 75-year history.  

A composer and master storyteller who writes rhymes and creates gritty, deeply searing portraits of life from the pespective of urban, often disenfranchised voices, "DAMN" is a winding story following characters in through different tales of fear, fate, pride, and survival. The two previous African American composers who've won the Pulitzer Prize for music are trumpeter Wynton Marsalis (1997) for his jazz oratorio, "Blood On the Fields", and saxophonist Ornette Coleman (2007), for his jazz composition, "Sound Grammar", recorded in Germany.