The Pulitzer Prize recipients were announced on April 16, and there were few surprises. The awards for journalism were unobjectionable (although we wonder how many more Pulitzers the New York Times and Washington Post really need). It was the Pulitzer for music that grabbed the most attention: It went to rapper Kendrick Lamar for an album charmingly called DAMN.
The Pulitzer for music has not always gone to the recipients we would have chosen, but over time it’s been a serious award. Past recipients: Samuel Barber for his Piano Concerto in 1963; Ned Rorem for his orchestral work Air Music in 1976; Morton Gould’s work for strings, Stringmusic, in 1995; and posthumous awards for Duke Ellington and Thelonious Monk in 1999 and 2006 respectively.
Alas, the Pulitzer’s music judges, like their counterparts on many other cultural award panels, are fashion-conscious. We confess we were not intimately familiar with Lamar’s work—rap is not our thing. Perhaps the more important point to make, though, is that Lamar is a highly successful pop artist. He already won a Grammy this year for DAMN. In 2015 he won four Grammys for his album To Pimp a Butterfly. Lamar has achieved international fame and earned a great deal of money for his undeniable talents. We wish the man well. But the Pulitzer for music has traditionally gone to non-celebrities for highly complex compositions that will never top the charts or draw crowds of teenagers to performances.
We’ll leave it to readers to decide whether Lamar’s compositions merit the highest honor of a venerable cultural institution. Having viewed a few of his performances online, we’ll readily admit he’s a talented performer, but we wonder whether his entrancing but tuneless chants will stand the test of time. Nor could we glean any sense from Lamar’s verse. A sampling from his song “DNA”:
Loyalty, got royalty inside my DNA
Cocaine quarter piece, got war and peace inside my DNA
I got power, poison, pain, and joy inside my DNA
I got hustle, though, ambition, flow inside my DNA
I was born like this, since one like this
Immaculate conception
I transform like this, perform like this
Was Yeshua’s new weapon
I don’t contemplate, I meditate, then off your f—ing head
This that put-the-kids-to-bed . . .
Lamar’s DAMN., according to the Pulitzer committee, is a “song collection unified by its vernacular authenticity and rhythmic dynamism.” We’ll take their word for it.
