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<p>NEW YORK &#8212; Kendrick Lamar won the Pulitzer Prize for music Monday, making history as the first non-classical or jazz artist to win the prestigious prize.</p><p>The revered rapper is also the most commercially successful musician to receive the award, usually reserved for critically acclaimed classical acts who don&#8217;t live on the pop charts.</p><p>The 30-year-old won the prize for &#8220;DAMN.,&#8221; his raw and powerful Grammy-winning album. The Pulitzer board said Monday the album is &#8220;a virtuosic song collection unified by its vernacular authenticity and rhythmic dynamism that offers affecting vignettes capturing the complexity of modern African-American life.&#8221; He will win $15,000. </p><p>Lamar has been lauded for his deep lyrical content, politically charged live performances, and his profound mix of hip-hop, spoken word, jazz, soul, funk, poetry and African sounds. Since emerging on the music scene with the 2011 album &#8220;Section.80,&#8221; he has achieved the perfect mix of commercial appeal and critical respect.</p><p>The Pulitzer board has awarded special honors to Bob Dylan, Duke Ellington, George Gershwin, Thelonious Monk, John Coltrane and Hank Williams, but a popular figure like Lamar has never won the prize for music. In 1997, Wynton Marsalis became the first jazz act to win the Pulitzer Prize for music.</p><p>That makes Lamar&#8217;s win that much more important: His platinum-selling major-label albums &#8212; &#8220;good kid, m.A.A.d city,&#8221; &#8221;To Pimp a Butterfly&#8221; and &#8220;DAMN.&#8221; &#8212; became works of art, with Lamar writing songs about blackness, street life, police brutality, perseverance, survival and self-worth. His piercing and sharp raps helped him become the voice of the generation, and easily ascend as the leader in hip-hop and cross over to audiences outside of rap, from rock to pop to jazz. He&#8217;s also been a dominator on the charts, having achieved two dozen Top 40 hits, including a No. 1 success with &#8220;Humble,&#8221; and he has even collaborated with the likes of U2, Taylor Swift, Imagine Dragons, Rihanna and Beyonce.</p><p><ins>His music, with songs like &#8220;Alright&#8221; and &#8220;The Blacker the Berry,&#8221; have become anthems in the wake of high-profile police shootings of minorities as the conversation about race relations dominates news headlines. He brought of dose of seriousness to the 2015 BET Awards, rapping on top of a police car with a large American flag waving behind him. At the 2016 Grammys, during his visual-stunning, show-stopping performance, he appeared beaten, in handcuffs, with chains around his hands and bruises on his eyes as he delivered powerful lyrics to the audience. </ins></p><p><ins>Lamar&#8217;s musical success helped him win 12 Grammy Awards, though all three of his major-label albums have lost in the top category &#8212; album of the year. Each loss has been criticized by the music community, launching the conversation about how the Recording Academy might be out of touch. &#8220;DAMN.&#8221; lost album of the year to Bruno Mars&#8217; &#8220;24K Magic&#8221; in January. </ins></p><p><ins>The rapper, born in Compton, California, was hand-picked by &#8220;Black Panther&#8221; director Ryan Coogler to curate an album to accompany the ubiquitously successful film, giving Lamar yet again another No. 1 effort and highly praised project. </ins></p><p><ins>&#8220;DAMN.,&#8221; released on April 14, 2017, won five Grammys, including best rap album, and the album topped several year-end lists by critics, including NPR, Rolling Stone, Pitchfork, BBC News, Complex and Vulture. </ins></p><p><ins>Finalists for the Pulitzer Prize in music were Michael Gilbertson&#8217;s &#8220;Quartet,&#8221; which debuted last February at Carnegie Hall, and Ted Hearne&#8217;s &#8220;Sound from the Bench,&#8221; a 35-minute cantata released last March. </ins></p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Rapper Kendrick Lamar accepts the award for best rap album for &#8216;Damn&#8217; at the 60th annual Grammy Awards in New York in January. On Monday, Lamar won the Pulitzer Prize for music for the same album. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/web1_AP18106663261359.jpg</photo0><caption0>Rapper Kendrick Lamar accepts the award for best rap album for &#8216;Damn&#8217; at the 60th annual Grammy Awards in New York in January. On Monday, Lamar won the Pulitzer Prize for music for the same album. </caption0><photoCredit0>Matt Sayles | Invision/AP </photoCredit0></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Mesfin Fekadu</p><p>The Associated Press</p></bylineMeta></div>

Commercial, critical darling Kendrick Lamar wins Pulitzer