I believe there is a word for this and that is: stoked. I’m stoked to see Kendrick Lamar received the Pulitzer prize for music. It’s significant as it proves that hip-hop music can both be mainstream but also resonate with a usually stuffy audience. Kendrick is the first rapper to receive the award. Not bad for the man whose landmark album, To Pimp A Butterfly, got snubbed at the Grammy’s for a certain white country-turned-pop singer. Kung Fu Kenny joins other more high-brow artists for the honor: Duke Ellington and Bob Dylan.
It proves that the messages found in Kendrick’s album DAMN, a vinyl copy of which I keep in my collection, aren’t just of the moment. The songs are about black culture. I like how The Guardian put it, the Pulitzer Prize chose someone who is “both at the top of his game and at the forefront of a post-Ferguson renaissance in righteously angry, politically engaged black music that genuinely bears comparison to soul music’s revered early 1970s golden era.”
This shows how music, no matter what genre, can be important not just because of composition but also because how, excuse me for using this, woke it is. Music should speak to the people who are most affected by current affairs, it should be in touch with what’s happening especially in these times. Music is, as it has always been for the oppressed, a way to voice out messages suppressed by the usual means of communication.
I’m glad Kendrick was able to break through. His win isn’t just for him but also for the people he speaks of. It also is a sign that institutions like the Pulitzer prize are adapting and responding to what’s around. Rather than being in a vacuum for the sake of upholding traditions, we see how the win teaches us how we can break away from the usual to create our own narrative. That’s what Kendrick has taught us and that’s what the Pulitzer just affirmed.
