Kendrick Lamar’s Boundary Breaking Pulitzer Prize

My project will focus on Kendrick Lamar’s career, honing in on his most recent crowning achievement, winning 2018’s Pulitzer prize for music, for his project DAMN (released in 2017). Lamar’s was the first Pulitzer awarded to an artist who was not a classical or jazz musician. This semi-exclusivity may remind you of the concept of a musical “genius”, and the way such genius seems limited to a privileged few. In Haefeli’s article, The Problem with Geniuses, she writes, “The stereotype of the solitary genius disempowers women and minorities who do not see people of their gender or ethnicity included in the canon of great composers.” While Lamar is a man, he is also a minority and not a composer (or classical/jazz musician), making his odds to win the Pulitzer prize for music that much lower than the many others vying for the award. In many ways, the Pulitzer prize can act as a proxy for the title of genius. This idea of genius can be exclusionary and can create boundaries to the success of non-privileged people. Lamar bypassed the exclusionary nature of genius, and the previously exclusive nature of the Pulitzer prize, by being open and incredibly hardworking. To me, Kendrick Lamar stands as a symbol for inclusivity.