Kendrick Lamar & The Pulitzer Prize: A Case Study in Hip-Hop’s Academic Recognition
Pulitzer Prize in Music: Context & Background
Established over 100 years ago as part of the wider Pulitzer Prizes (covering literature, journalism, etc.).
Music category added in 1943.
Award package:
Cash honorarium of 15\,000.
Intangible benefit: substantial prestige and “bragging rights.”
Eligibility requirements (as stated by the Pulitzer organization):
Composer must be an American citizen.
Work must receive its first performance or commercial recording in the United States during the year of eligibility.
Selection mechanism:
No fixed rubric beyond the basic category definition.
Decisions made by rotating nominating juries and the Pulitzer Board.
Leaves ample interpretive room for what counts as “distinguished.”
Historic Winner Profile Before 2018
Until Kendrick Lamar’s victory, every laureate wrote music that fit broadly into classical or, more recently, jazz idioms.
Jazz breakthrough: 1997 win by Wynton Marsalis; prior to that, jazz had been entirely absent from the laureate list.
Absence of popular genres (rock, hip-hop, electronic, etc.) reinforced a hierarchy that privileges so-called “art music.”
Kendrick Lamar’s Win – Key Facts
Album: DAMN.
Released 2017.
Awarded Pulitzer in 2018.
First non-classical, non-jazz work to secure the prize since the category started in 1943.
Signaled a landmark shift—or at least an opening—in institutional definitions of musical excellence.
Significance & Academic Connections
Week-1 course framing: academia traditionally treats classical & jazz as the only “serious” musics worthy of scholarly focus.
Lamar’s win challenges that boundary, offering:
A concrete case study of hip-hop entering elite cultural institutions.
Evidence for the evolving canon in music history curricula.
For Rio Hondo students, the event underscores why a History of Hip-Hop course is both timely and academically legitimate.
Reactions & Controversy
Pushback came largely from pockets of the classical & art-music world:
Perception that a popular genre “took” a prize historically reserved for them.
Feelings of being “jipped” (i.e., short-changed) despite no direct personal stake.
Important nuance: objections seldom attacked Lamar’s artistry; rather, they targeted the institutional shift.
Reveals persistent attitudes that hip-hop is “mere entertainment” rather than an art form.
Ethical / Philosophical Implications
Gatekeeping: Who decides what counts as high art? The Pulitzer’s opaque criteria amplify debates about cultural authority.
Cultural equity: Recognition of hip-hop can help redress systemic undervaluation of Black musical innovation.
Canon formation: Expanding the canon pressures academia to revisit syllabi, funding priorities, and performance programming.
Practical & Forward-Looking Takeaways
Lamar’s win may pave the way for other genres—electronic, global pop, experimental hybrids—to be considered.
Students & scholars should track forthcoming Pulitzer cycles for evidence of lasting change versus one-off tokenism.
Engage critically with the criteria: if the rules are genre-agnostic, why were 75+ years needed for a hip-hop album to win?
Quick-Reference Timeline
1943 – Music category inaugurated.
1997 – First jazz winner (Wynton Marsalis).
2017 – Kendrick Lamar releases DAMN.
2018 – DAMN. awarded Pulitzer Prize in Music.
Pulitzer Prize in Music: Context & Background
The Pulitzer Prize in Music was established over 100 years ago, as an integral part of the broader Pulitzer Prizes, which encompasses diverse categories including journalism, literature, drama, and public service. This extensive scope underscores its prestige across various fields of human endeavor.
The specific music category was added in 1943, marking its formal recognition as a distinct artistic discipline worthy of this esteemed award.
The award package traditionally includes:
A significant cash honorarium of 15\,000, providing tangible recognition to the laureate.
An invaluable intangible benefit: substantial prestige, often referred to as “bragging rights,” which can significantly enhance a composer’s career, influence, and legacy within the music world and beyond.
Eligibility requirements, as strictly outlined by the Pulitzer organization, stipulate:
The composer must unequivocally be an American citizen, reinforcing the award’s focus on American artistic contributions.
The nominated work must have received its first performance or commercial recording in the United States during the calendar year of eligibility. This criterion ensures the award remains current and recognizes recent American musical output.
The selection mechanism is characterized by:
A lack of a rigidly fixed rubric beyond the basic category definition, allowing for a degree of flexibility and interpretation.
Decisions are made through a meticulous process involving rotating nominating juries and the overarching Pulitzer Board. These bodies are composed of distinguished experts and professionals in the fields of music, arts, and journalism.
This deliberative process leaves ample interpretive room for what ultimately counts as a “distinguished” musical composition, often leading to nuanced discussions and occasional surprises.
Historic Winner Profile Before 2018
Until Kendrick Lamar’s groundbreaking victory, every laureate of the Pulitzer Prize in Music had exclusively composed music that fit broadly into either classical or, in more recent decades, jazz idioms. This established a long-standing tradition of recognizing only these specific genres.
A significant jazz breakthrough occurred in 1997 with the win by Wynton Marsalis, for his oratorio Blood on the Fields. Prior to this, jazz, despite its rich American heritage, had been entirely absent from the laureate list, highlighting a previous institutional bias.
The consistent absence of popular genres—such as rock, hip-hop, electronic music, and R&B—from the list of winners reinforced a long-standing cultural hierarchy. This hierarchy historically privileged what was often termed “art music” or “serious music” over forms deemed “popular” or “commercial.”
Kendrick Lamar’s Win – Key Facts
The album DAMN. became the focal point of this historic shift:
Released in 2017 to widespread critical acclaim and commercial success.
Awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 2018, a year after its release, following the eligibility criteria.
This marked DAMN. as the first non-classical, non-jazz work to secure the prestigious prize since the category’s inception in 1943. This was an unprecedented moment in the award’s history.
Lamar’s win unequivocally signaled a landmark shift, or at the very least, an unprecedented opening, in the institutional definitions and perceptions of musical excellence, challenging decades of traditionalist views.
Significance & Academic Connections
From a week-1 course framing perspective, academia has traditionally treated classical and jazz as the only “serious” musics genuinely worthy of deep scholarly focus, rigorous analysis, and inclusion in academic curricula. This narrow viewpoint often marginalized other genres.
Lamar’s win profoundly challenges this entrenched boundary, offering:
A concrete and highly visible case study of hip-hop entering elite cultural institutions. This event forced a reconsideration of hip-hop’s artistic merit on the highest cultural stages.
Compelling evidence for the evolving canon in music history curricula. It sparked conversations about expanding the traditional scope of what is taught and studied in music departments.
For Rio Hondo students, particularly those engaged in music studies, the event underscores why a History of Hip-Hop course is not only culturally relevant and timely but also academically legitimate, deserving of scholarly recognition alongside other established music history courses.
Reactions & Controversy
Pushback and critical reactions came primarily from specific pockets of the classical and art-music world, revealing deeply held convictions about genre boundaries.
There was a widespread perception that a popular genre like hip-hop had “taken” a prize historically and exclusively reserved for them, leading to feelings of displacement and encroachment.
Many expressed feelings of being “jipped” (i.e., unfairly short-changed), despite often having no direct personal stake or direct impact from the decision, highlighting a broader ideological conflict.
It is important to note a crucial nuance: objections seldom directly attacked Kendrick Lamar’s artistry or the quality of DAMN. itself. Rather, their discontent was primarily targeted at the institutional shift—the Pulitzer Board’s decision to recognize a popular genre—and what it implied for the future of the award.
This controversy reveals persistent, underlying attitudes that often dismiss hip-hop as merely “mere entertainment” or a commercial product, rather than acknowledging it as a complex, sophisticated, and culturally significant art form deserving of high-art recognition.
Ethical / Philosophical Implications
Gatekeeping: Lamar's win reignited heated debates about who holds the authority to decide what counts as “high art” and “distinguished music.” The Pulitzer’s historically opaque and subjective criteria have long amplified these critical discussions about cultural authority and influence.
Cultural equity: The recognition of hip-hop, especially a work by a Black artist, can be seen as a significant step towards redressing systemic undervaluations and historical omissions of Black musical innovation within dominant cultural institutions. It promotes a more equitable representation of diverse artistic expressions.
Canon formation: Expanding the musical canon, as evidenced by Lamar’s win, exerts considerable pressure on academia and cultural institutions to re-evaluate their entrenched syllabi, reallocate funding priorities, and diversify performance programming. This pushes for a broader, more inclusive understanding of music history and contemporary artistic achievement.
Practical & Forward-Looking Takeaways
Kendrick Lamar’s precedent-setting win may significantly pave the way for other previously overlooked genres—such as electronic music, global pop, experimental hybrids, and various forms of folk or regional music—to be genuinely considered for the Pulitzer Prize in the future.
Students and scholars are encouraged to critically track forthcoming Pulitzer cycles for concrete evidence of lasting change versus instances of one-off tokenism. Observing subsequent winners will reveal if Lamar’s win represents a true paradigm shift or an isolated exception.
It is crucial to engage critically with the criteria themselves: if the rules are indeed genre-agnostic (as the Pulitzer organization claims), a pertinent question arises: why were 75+ years needed for a hip-hop album to finally win, suggesting a historical bias or unstated interpretive norms?