GNX
If there were any remaining doubts as to hip-hop’s MVP, consider the decision stamped: Kendrick Lamar officially won 2024. There were whispers that Compton’s finest was working on an album in the wake of his feud with Drake, a once-in-a-generation beef that kept jaws dropped for months. (Perhaps you’ve heard of a little song called “Not Like Us,” an immediate entry into the canon of all-time great diss tracks.) After a sold-out celebration at the Kia Forum, an armful of Grammy nods and streaming records, and the headlining slot at next year’s Super Bowl, Lamar ties up his biggest year yet with a bow with his sixth album, *GNX*, the most legitimately surprising surprise drop since *BEYONCÉ* in 2013. Named for his beloved classic Buick, *GNX* finds Kendrick wielding a hatchet he’s by no means ready to bury, still channeling this summer’s cranked-to-11 energy. On “wacced out murals,” he’s riding around listening to Anita Baker, plotting on several downfalls: “It used to be fuck that n\*\*\*a, but now it’s plural/Fuck everybody, that’s on my body.” (Yes, there’s a nod to his Super Bowl drama with Lil Wayne.) If you’ve been holding your breath for Jack Antonoff to link with Mustard, wait no more—the seemingly odd couple share production credits on multiple tracks, the explosive “tv off” among them. Still, K.Dot keeps you guessing: It’s not quite 12 tracks of straight venom over world-conquering West Coast beats. SZA helps cool things down on the Luther Vandross-sampling “luther,” while Lamar snatches back a borrowed title on “heart pt. 6” to remember the early days of TDE: “Grinding with my brothers, it was us against them, no one above us/Bless our hearts.” He cycles through past lives over a flip of 2Pac’s “Made N\*\*\*\*z” on “reincarnated” before getting real with his father about war, peace, addiction, and ego death, and on “man at the garden,” he outlines his qualifications for the position of GOAT. Here’s another bullet point to add to that CV: On *GNX*, Lamar still surprises while giving the people exactly what they want.
Kendrick’s glossy, hyper-local sixth album arrives after a year of unimpeachable victories. The question is, how much do you enjoy watching him take lap after lap?
The emcee’s sixth studio album sees him embrace and expand on his vision of fatherhood.
After a year full of scathing diss tracks, Kendrick Lamar converts that energy into love while carrying the West Coast on his back
GNX is the blueprint for Kendrick Lamar's new rap zeitgeist, and all we can do is hope that everyone gets the cue.
Able to reach an intensity that’s not been as often touched upon since 2012’s ‘Good Kid M.A.A.D City’.
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There we were, all starting to plan our annual Album of the Year countdowns… then BAM! A new project from one of the true modern greats and one of the
Fresh from his feud with Drake, the US hip-hop star’s latest album finds him on imperious form
GNX by Kendrick Lamar album review by Adam Fink for Northern Transmissions. The modern legendary hip hop artist's new LP is now available
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