Kendrick Lamar accepted his Pulitzer Prize for Music on Wednesday at a ceremony at Columbia University.
He won for his critically acclaimed and Grammy award-winning album Damn, making him the first non-classical or jazz artist to win the award.
Columbia’s president, Lee Bollinger, said that Damn is a “virtuosic song collection unified by its vernacular authenticity that offers affecting vignettes capturing the complexity of modern African American life.”
Lamar didn’t make a speech but in the Pulitzer Prizes’ Facebook Live video he says, “It’s an honor … I’ve been writing my whole life, so to get this type of recognition – it’s beautiful.”
The Pulitzer board awarded Lamar the prize because Damn was able to capture the “complexity of African-American life,” they told the Associated Press in April.
Check out video of his win around the 53-minute mark below.
