With Melissa Block
Kendrick Lamar scores a Pulitzer. Beyoncé stuns us with her performance at Coachella. We’ll talk about what a big week it’s been for black musicians.
Guests:
David Hajdu, Music critic for The Nation and 2018 Pulitzer music juror. The jury unanimously selected Kendrick Lamar’s DAMN. for the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Music. (@davidhajdu_)
Rodney Carmichael, NPR Music hip-hop correspondent. (@free_c_mike)
Fredara Hadley, Visiting professor of ethnomusicology at Oberlin College. (@fredaraMareva)
From The Reading List:
Billboard: Beyonce’s Coachella Set Was a Landmark Celebration of HBCUs & Southern Black Culture — “Beyoncé may not have attended a HBCU herself or joined a Black sorority, but the feel and execution of her performance rang true with people familiar with HBCU and Black Greek fraternity/sorority traditions because she did more than scan YouTube for inspiration — she brought expert practitioners in-house to reimagine her catalog and stage show as if it were happening at Howard Homecoming instead of Coachella.”
NPR.org: How The Pulitzer Jury Opened Its Doors To Hip-Hop — “Lamar’s Pulitzer win may constitute the first time a high-minded institution has seen fit to place an insurgent and equally popular rap artist, in the prime of his career, within America’s canon of heralded music composers. It comes at a time increasingly defined by unapologetic blackness, from the cinematic phenomenon of Black Panther (which Lamar coincidentally soundtracked) to last weekend’s epic festival black-out now known as Beychella.”
It’s been a banner week for black musicians. Hip-hop artist Kendrick Lamar won the Pulitzer Prize for music – for his album DAMN. – which we’re hearing some of now. It’s a milestone: the first Pulitzer ever awarded for music that’s not classical or jazz. And Beyoncé becomes the first black woman ever to headline the Coachella music festival – where she wows with an epic set.
This hour, On Point: Kendrick Lamar. Beyoncé. And more.
— Melissa Block
Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.