who on the drums kendrick lamar untitled unmastered 2

Like Lamar’s 2016 Best Rap Album Grammy for “To Pimp a Butterfly,” the Pulitzer award seems late. It seems the Pulitzer Prize’s own rationale for awarding “DAMN.” is meant for the rapper’s greater body of work. Nevertheless, “DAMN.” certainly doesn’t bear the same artistic merit as its predecessors “good kid, m.A.A.d city” and “To Pimp a Butterfly.” Both of Lamar’s previous albums told a narrative and more explicitly addressed “African-American life.” The single “Alright” from the latter project even became the anthem of the Black Lives Matter movement. Because of this, rap suddenly had a foot in the door, with “DAMN.” receiving a shot at the prize. In an interview with the New York Times, music critic David Hajdu said that the judging committee realized some modern classical artists demonstrated influences of hip-hop in their work. Clearly the judges weren’t averse to more lyrical works.ĭoes Kendrick Lamar truly deserve the Pulitzer Prize for “DAMN.” or is this an attempt to stay hip? The album received generally positive reviews and had every song topping Apple Music’s charts the night it released a year ago, but it also came on the heels of two outstanding projects and “untitled unmastered,” a compilation album of impressive throwaway songs.īefore the discussion gets hung up on whether rap deserves a Pulitzer in general, it’s important to note the judges’ thought process. Even then, it should be noted that the cantata in question was a spoken word narrative with a chamber choir, electric guitar, and drums. It’s a big step for rap and hip-hop, as it marks an end to the unspoken boycott of pop and rap by the Pulitzer Prizes. This isn’t a capstone on a decades-spanning career, but it does mark the first artist outside of jazz and classical music to take the award. This is quite flattering for an artist who’s only been an A-list celebrity for the past six years or so. The Pulitzer Prize website described the rapper’s album 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.”

That’s an extra $15,000 and another notch in the Compton rapper’s belt for his Grammy-winning album “DAMN.” Kendrick Lamar beat out a string quartet and a cantata to take the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for music on Monday. Kendrick Lamar won a Pulitzer Prize for his album “DAMN.” | Wikimedia Commons

Who on the drums kendrick lamar untitled unmastered 2