By Andre Paras
Staff Writer
Kendrick Lamar, the Compton rapper, songwriter and Pulitzer Prize winner, has had himself quite a year coming off of a feud with one of hip-hop’s biggest names, Drake. Since then, Lamar has been recognized with seven nominations for the 2025 Grammys and is set to headline the 2025 Super Bowl halftime show.
He’s secured both of these without a new album since 2022 — until now.
At around 11:30 a.m. on Nov. 22, Lamar released a snippet with the album’s name, “GNX.” Thirty minutes later, “GNX” released without any other promotion, leaving even the music industry blindsided.
“The label found out this morning,” said Brian Zisook, CEO of music platform Audiomack, on X.
To add to the surprise element of this record, none of the features were listed in the song titles on streaming platforms for its release. SZA is the main major feature on “GNX,” on tracks “luther” and “gloria.” Roddy Ricch also joins in on “dodger blue.”
The rest of the album gives a platform to lesser-known, underground west-coast rappers such as Dody6, Wallie the Sensei, Sam Dew, Ink, AzChike and more.
Producers Dahi, Mustard, Sounwave, Terrace Martin and more have reunited with Lamar on this project. However, a big, unexpected name also has significant work on this record, and that is Grammy-award-winning producer Jack Antonoff. Known best for his work with Taylor Swift and other modern pop stars, Antonoff proves his versatility in hip-hop on “GNX.”
The car Lamar named the studio-LP after, which is seen posed with on the album’s artwork, is the Buick GNX, short for “Grand National Experimental,” according to the American Muscle Car Museum.
The GNX, a turbo-charged car that could go from 0 to 60 mph in just five seconds, was released in an extremely limited series of just 547 cars in 1987, Lamar’s birth year (Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons).
Lamar chose the Buick GNX car to showcase this record’s connections to himself and his nostalgia, and to celebrate his riches and success from this year.
The first song, “wacced out murals,” begins with Lamar stating: “Yesterday, somebody whacked out my mural,” referring to a Compton mural of him being vandalized, according to XXL.
Through a simple pulsating beat, Lamar continues on with the track, reflecting on his beef with Drake and addressing the disappointment and betrayal he’s seen after being chosen as the Super Bowl’s upcoming headliner. He expresses love for Lil Wayne, whom fans think Lamar stole the show from, with the event being held in Wayne’s hometown of New Orleans.
As an opening track, this song greatly sets the tone for the album. Lamar is focused and unfiltered in his artistic commitment despite barriers placed in front of him. He does this while getting vulnerable and opening up about his struggles.
Next is “squabble up,” which fans may recognize as a snippet teased at the beginning of Lamar’s “Not Like Us” music video. This song continues with the west-coast influenced sound of “Not Like Us” through its instrumental, while interpolating his own flows from that song throughout.
The track “luther” likely gets its name from a sample in the song of the late R&B singer-songwriter Luther VanDross. VanDross’ vocals open the track singing, “If this world were mine,” and Lamar and SZA use this line to paint their ideal worlds free of pain and suffering. With many seamless lyrical exchanges, Lamar and SZA flex their chemistry on this track in their fifth collaboration together.
On the second half of the album, “reincarnated” and its instrumentation is driven by a sample of the legendary rapper Tupac’s song “Made Ni***z.” Lamar uses the idea of reincarnation to describe the similarities between himself and past notable Black musicians.
Lamar reclaims his “The Heart” series with “heart pt. 6,” which is made to combine hip-hop culture in relation to his life. During his rap beef from this year, Drake titled one of his Kendrick diss tracks “The Heart Part 6” to mock the series and talk about how one of Lamar’s friends went against him.
Despite this, Lamar doesn’t discuss Drake here. This track instead details Lamar’s early days and inspirations as a rapper under music label Top Dawg Entertainment. As Lamar describes his rise to the top of hip-hop, he also recalls his passion for independence, thus describing leaving TDE and creating his current label, pgLang.
For an artist who’s been on a generational run since the start of his discography, he has nothing to prove yet a lot to lose in potentially staining his legacy. As a surprise release, “GNX” is everything fans could’ve asked for, and arguably his most fun record to date. On his quest to perfectionism, Lamar has earned himself another great album to help support his case as hip-hop’s greatest of all-time.
