At a ceremony at New York City’s Columbia University on Wednesday, Kendrick Lamar accepted his Pulitzer Prize for music for his album “DAMN.” He is the first rapper to receive the award.
“It’s an honor,” he said on the official Facebook live stream of the event. “I’ve been writing my whole life, so to get this type of recognition – it’s beautiful.”
In making the presentation, Columbia President Lee Bollinger described Lamar’s album as a “virtuosic song collection unified by its vernacular authenticity that offers affecting vignettes capturing the complexity of modern African American life.”
The full Facebook Live stream: