At 10 a.m. MT on Friday, Nov. 22, Kendrick Lamar pulled the unthinkable and surprise-dropped his much awaited sixth LP.
“GNX” is arguably the most important release of Lamar’s career, as he’s sandwiched between the biggest beef in hip hop history and headlining the Super Bowl. So to forgo a typical album rollout in favor of a cold-turkey album release is a bold move considering the amount of pressure on him.
Lamar’s previous album, “Mr Morale & The Big Steppers”, was one of his most high concept and theatrical albums yet. However, his most recent hits, “Not Like Us” and “Like That”, are some of Lamar’s most accessible and digestible tracks he’s ever released.
So going into this album, would we see a more commercialized version of Lamar or the introspective and conceptual version of Kendrick Lamar? “GNX” seems to strike an impressive balance between both sides of Lamar.
On one hand, songs like “Squabble Up” and “TV Off” are nearly guaranteed to be massive hits. The west coast inspired vibrant production of “Not Like Us” returns. Lamar’s verses are so animated and polished that it’s hard not to dance along.
Lamar’s fun side is rarely displayed on his LPs, so seeing nearly half the album dedicated to that side is refreshing. His technical rapping on this album is undeniably great. His presence on the mic is always entertaining and commanding — especially when he experiments with new deliveries.
On the other hand, songs like “Reincarnated” prove Lamar’s still here to make densely packed, nuanced, and self-aware pieces of art. Lamar tackles the concept of influence and inspiration through the idea of reincarnation. He raps through the perspective of his past lives eventually building up to him rapping through his own perspective and God’s perspective.
The song’s main theme is the power of influence, and whether Lamar is misusing his or not. It doesn’t matter that Lamar is about to go perform at the Super Bowl, he’s still here to make music that both challenges himself and the audience.
The juxtaposition of the more arrogant and celebratory tracks to the more introspective and self analytical tracks is what really makes this album great. The production, curated by longtime collaborator Sounwave, also highlights this nuance.
“Man of the Garden” instrumentally feels like a tribute to Nas’s iconic “One Mic”. The minimalist drums and progressive build up matches the self-reflective, yet urgent tone.
Another production standout is “Hey Now”, which is one of the more fun songs on the album. The style is undeniably west coast, but painted over with an industrial gloss. It’s much more slick and nonchalant compared to the other west-coast inspired songs on the album.
As mentioned above, this is Lamar’s first album since the cataclysmic beef between him and Drake that occurred over the spring of 2024. Many fans were anticipating Lamar to further address this beef and he definitely does on “GNX”. Most of it comes with the first track, “wacced out murals”.
Lamar doesn’t really frame this as a diss track, but he makes it clear that he stands on his prior messages towards Drake, and further saying he doesn’t respect anyone empathetic toward him. There isn’t a “Meet the Grahams” level bomb on “GNX”, but Lamar still shows a level of anger and tenacity against Drake is still well and alive.
However, this does feel like Lamar’s least ambitious album yet. But that also allows this to be Lamar’s most fun and digestible release as well. He uses this album to try out new things that he’s never done before.
For instance, Lamar also uses a substantial amount of this album’s runtime to showcase smaller artists. Guest rapper Dody6 appears on “Hey Now” and only has 35,000 monthly listeners (compared to Lamar’s 60 million).
These features are very respectable in concept, as it shows Lamar is truly genuine about supporting the west-coast hip hop scene.
Overall, “GNX” is great. The short runtime and looser concept allow this album to appeal to mainstream audiences in a way Lamar hasn’t reached since “DAMN.”. For a year where Lamar has dominated the charts, it’s fitting he ends the year off with a victory lap. And Lamar is behind the wheel of his Buick GNX for his victory lap.
