On November 22nd, Kendrick Lamar surprise-dropped his fifth studio album GNX, sending ripples through the music community. The album comes on the crest of a tidal wave of success for Lamar, after his announcement as the headliner of Superbowl LVIII and worldwide acclaim from “Not Like Us”. Following in the footsteps of DAMN and Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers, GNX is not only a culmination of Lamar’s success, but a contemplative exploration of duality – of fame, of the industry, of Los Angeles – saturated with the consciousness and complexity he is heralded for.
Feud with Drake & the Future of the Hip-Hop Industry
To call the album simply a continuation of Lamar’s feud with Drake from earlier this year would be reductive; though surely influential to the contents of GNX, the album is a massive expansion of the themes hashed out earlier this year; it serves as a condemnation of hypocrisy and superficiality, a celebration of L.A. heritage, and an exploration of morality and redemption. “peekaboo” acts as Lamar’s victory lap, from direct callouts like “why you actin’ tough on IG live” to sharper jabs: “eighty-pointers like a Kobe game” (referencing 2006 game decisively won by the L.A. Lakers over Drake’s hometeam, the Toronto Raptors). But Lamar quickly broadens his scope, levelling his gaze on the hip-hop industry as a whole.
Throughout the album, Lamar expresses his disillusionment with the current state of the industry, positioning Drake as a proxy for what he identifies as a greater trend. On “wacced out murals” and “tv off” Lamar develops these criticisms, disparaging the pursuit of commercial success at the expense of authenticity and lamenting the prevalence of hypocrisy. However, as Lamar argues, the revitalization of West Coast hip-hop with renewed authenticity marks a new era, one that will leave artists like Drake in the past.
So, while GNX in some ways serves to hammer home Lamar’s criticism of Drake and other rappers, it also sheds light on hope for the future. The album is seeped with hallmarks of Lamar’s L.A. ancestry, a celebration of Southern California’s buzzing culture and music scene. Lamar asserts his role in spearheading the resurgence of West Coast hip-hop, “… who put the West back in front of s***? / Tell ‘em Kendrick did it,” on “gnx”. He then seemingly hands the torch off to rising southern Californian rappers, as Peysoh, Hitta J3, and YoungThreat repeat the mantra after him. The album opts to feature lesser-known artists with roots in southern California rather than the big names you might expect from a highly anticipated album like GNX in an effort to focalize local talent. “dodger blue” is firmly situated within Los Angeles tradition, referencing local neighborhoods and high schools to prioritize what Lamar considers the authentic L.A. experience over its often skewed portrayal as an influencer and Hollywood hot-bed. The Dodgers, the city’s baseball team, are referenced in the title of the song and further serve to champion Los Angeles pride beyond Lamar’s album Dodger’s recent win over the New York Yankees in the 2024 World Series in late October. Coincidentally, the Dodgers have even more influence in shaping the album than just a song title; it was at Game 1 that Lamar first encountered mariachi singer Deyra Barrera who sang a tribute to late Dodger’s legend, Fernando Valenzuela. Barrera’s vocals underpin the album, as her affective singing on track 1 (“wacced out murals”), track 6 (“reincarnated”), and track 12 (“gloria”) weaves a symmetrical thread through the tracklist, striking a balance between its two halves. “squabble up” is one of the album’s most catchy tracks whose Southern Californian soundscape, along with the album as a whole, acts as not an homage to Lamar’s past and seeks to usher in hip-hop’s future.
Personal Identity
In many ways, GNX explores Lamar’s identity and personal growth, even beyond his relationship with Los Angeles. The album, like much of Lamar’s prior work (notably DAMN), is self-aware and meditative, retrospectively engaging with his past to navigate the present. On “heart pt. 6” he reflects on leaving Top Dawg Entertainment, his original record label, and looks to his future with his personal project pgLang (underscoring the role of Sounwave, TDE’s in-house producer, who worked on every song on GNX).
The album’s central emblem and namesake–the Buick Grand National GNX–is a limited-production model from 1987 (Lamar’s birthyear) and seems to mark a ‘coming full circle’ moment, one that traces back through his entire life. In a 2012 interview with Complex, Lamar shared that after his birth, his father brought him home from the hospital in the GNX’s parent model–the 1987 Buick Regal. Earlier this year in March, Lamar shared on Instagram that he had purchased a model of the GNX.
On “reincarnated” he negotiates his moral agency, casting himself in the role of Lucifer in a retelling of the devil’s biblical fall. He depicts a conversation between himself (both as Kendrick and as Lucifer) and ‘the Father’ (both Lamar’s father and God) in which he explores his own struggle with contradiction. In a confessional-style exchange, Lamar says, “I’m tryna push peace in L.A.” to which the father replies, “But you love war,” The conversation proceeds, “No, I don’t / Oh, yes, you do,” elucidating Lamar’s feelings of equivocation within himself, as a promoter of peace with a violent past (as discussed on past songs, i.e. ”The Blacker the Berry”). The song concludes with Lamar promising “… to use [his] gifts to bring understanding,” ultimately vowing to use his music as a positive, inspirational force rather than a self-centred one.
In “gloria”, Lamar reflexively explores his relationship with writing in a specious love song whose subject he reveals to be his pen. Overrun with double entendres like “my woman and my right hand,” and the more glib, “I know your favorite movie, is it Notebook?” Lamar playfully engages with an extended metaphor resemblant of Common’s 1994 single “I Used to Love H.E.R.” or even Tupac Shakar’s “Me and My Girlfriend”. Like much of his work, notably his 2015 album To Pimp a Butterfly, Lamar pays homage to Shakar. On “luther,” SZA references his poem “The Rose That Grew from Concrete,” there are a few potential allusions to Shakur on “wacced out murals,” and Lamar samples his work on “reincarnated”. In many ways, the album is a continuation of the themes Lamar has been developing throughout his career. In other ways, it offers a fresh perspective and a way forward for an industry that has often favoured facades over authenticity. As a whole, GNX is inventive and self-conscious, and a powerful new installment in Lamar’s esteemed legacy.
Favourite tracks: “wacced out murals,” “squabble up,” and reincarnated”
“Kendrick Lamar 3 F.I.B. 2016 (cropped 3)” by Batiste Safont is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.