‘It’s big for hip hop’: Pulitzer jury on Kendrick Lamar album Damn’s historic win
University professor Farah Griffin and violinist Regina Carter – two of the five Pulitzer music jurors – talk about how great art needs to be acknowledged and their surprise at the lack of resistance to Lamar’s nomination
The decision to award rapper Kendrick Lamar the Pulitzer Prize for music represents a historic moment for hip hop and American music, according to two of the music jurors who picked the album Damn as a finalist.
“It’s big for hip hop. I think it’s big for our country. It’s big for music. But it’s big for the Pulitzers, too. Institutions are not stuck in time, either. Institutions can change,” said Farah Griffin, a professor at Columbia University in New York.
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Lamar’s win on Monday made history as the first non-classical or non-jazz artist to win the prestigious prize since the Pulitzers included music in 1943. Just having a rapper nominated for the prize is considered a stunning development for awards that usually honour musicians of European classical background.
“I knew that there would be some anger and some resentment and some people who wouldn’t like the idea, but surprisingly enough, I haven’t heard a lot of that,” Griffin said.
Another jury member, Grammy-nominated violinist Regina Carter, linked the award to recent waves of people speaking up and refusing to be told what is and is not worthy. “Great art has to be acknowledged,” she said. “If a work is great enough, you can’t deny it.”
