Vanity Fair's August 2018 cover story, "The Gospel According to Kendrick Lamar," opens with four quotes:
Fiction winner Toni Morrison says:
Kendrick Lamar understands and employs blues, jazz, and soul in his music, which makes it startling. His work is more than merely brilliant; it is magic.
Fellow musician Chuck D adds:
It takes guts, courage, and skill to shoulder the burden of a generation’s mind-set. Culturally, Kendrick Lamar is that compass — in fact, a GPS — in this current Hour of Chaos. That enough is worth a Pulitzer Prize or any award that sets the bar high.
And NBA star LeBron James goes on:
I love everything about his music. I can literally listen to his music and become a kid growing up with all the struggles in the inner city, but at the same time [learn] all the lessons it taught that we use as men today. If you listen to the last verse of “Black Boy Fly,” on good kid, m.A.A.d city, I know exactly what he means — because I was that kid.
Finally, Lamar speaks about the prize himself:
The minute I hear good news, it just motivates me to do more. I don’t want to get complacent. If you asked seven out of ten people, ‘What would you do if you got the Pulitzer Prize?,’ they’d say, ‘I’d put my feet up.’ But that would make me feel I’d reached my pinnacle at 30 years old, and that wouldn’t make me feel good.
Reporter Lisa Robinson dives deep into Lamar's life and work, referring to him as America's " poet laureate of hip-hop," with photographer Annie Leibovitz capturing him on stage and backstage.