Kendrick Lamar Is the First Non-Classical or Jazz Artist to Win Pulitzer

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Kendrick Lamar just made history.

His most recent album DAMN. has received the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Music, making him the first non-classical or jazz artist to receive the prestigious honor. It was arguably the biggest surprise of the awards, which celebrate achievements in journalism, arts and letters.

The organization described the critically acclaimed record 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."

Last year's Pulitzer in the same category was awarded to composer Dun Yu's album Angel's Bone. It's worth noting, the past several decades of the music award have mostly gone to instrumental LPs.

Other high profile winners this year included a number of journalistic efforts, such as The New York Times and The New Yorker's reporting on sexual abuse, which helped inspire the #MeToo movement, as well as The Washington Post's reporting on the Senate race in Alabama, which revealed sexual abuse and child molestation allegations against Republican Roy Moore.

The news comes as just last month it was revealed there is a Kendrick Lamar biography in the works.