On Nov. 22, hip-hop artist Kendrick Lamar released an album with no warning, titled GNX, with only one teaser leading up to the drop. This release is his sixth studio album and is 12 songs long, totaling 44 minutes and 20 seconds, making it the second shortest album on his discography. However, this doesn’t stop him from delivering the hard hitting lines fans love him for.
The album features artists like Peysoh, Roddy Ricch and SZA along with a number of other artists. The second half of the release is very feature heavy, with tracks varying in sound distinctly from one another.
GNX starts off with “wacced out murals,” which is a song Lamar uses to reinforce the fact that he’s one of hip-hop’s greats, talking about how he faced people against him. He raps about how he made his fame alone in the industry and recounting when he lost support from other artists.
Specifically, he calls out rapper Snoop Dogg for reposting artist Drake’s “Taylor Made Freestyle,” in which Drake faked a verse with Snoop and 2Pac using AI. Snoop reposted this song in the midst of beef between Lamar and Drake earlier in 2024.
“squabble up” is the next track, starting with a bar released at the end of a music video made for “Not Like Us,” which was his only hint at an album, but left fans enough in the dark to surprise them. The rest of the song has hard hitting rap vocals with a funky beat, returning fans to west coast hip-hop themes and old Lamar sounds, as does most of the album.
Third on the album, “luther,” one of two songs featuring SZA, a calmer piece than the two preceding, gives fans some of Lamar’s softer vocals. “Luther,” is an R&B track that will appeal to fans who don’t listen to traditional rap songs and prefer pop or dance music. In this song, the two sing back and forth about love and the hardships that it brings for two souls to be together.
Lines like “If this world were mine, I’d take your enemies in front of God,” shows the devotion of Lamar’s character in this track to his partner. Lamar and SZA have an adlib portion half way through the song that’s satisfying to listen to with the sharp back and forth vocals. This song ends with the chorus again, completing the love story it creates.
“Reincarnated” uses a sample from an old 2Pac song released in the 90’s as the base beat. It carries themes of Lamar’s further drive in his career with lines like “got this fire burnin’ in me from within.” Throughout this piece, Lamar takes on the persona of other artists like famous blues artist, John Lee Hooker. Hooker made a name for himself after running away from home, prompting the line in the song, “take me back to Michigan in 1947.”
It appears that Lamar uses this song to tell narratives about his influences as if he was in their lifetime, singing about these artist’s vices and downfalls, along with their great achievements. Within this story, Lamar is reincarnated from these past artists and begins to reflect on his own faults and mistakes. He recounts when he was kicked out of his house and that he sees his wrongdoings and forgives him. The end of the song creates a story between him and “his dad,” who tells him how his “pride has to die” and that he needs to do more for the people.
“Tv off” is number seven on this album, and fans speculate the first bar of it is a teaser at a second album coming in mid December. Other than that, this track is again on a West Coast rap beat and features rapper Lefty Gunplay and producer Mustard. Lamar raps about how people want his respect but don’t see things the same way as him, and act entitled for recognition just because they’ve known each other.
When Mustard drops his producer tag halfway through the track, Lamar responds by yelling his name, then a verse, and again yelling it before the end of the song. Then, Lamar raps that he’s still the king and what he does in the industry is meaningful to other artists outside himself.
Eighth on the set is “dodger blue” featuring three rap artists, Walie the Sensei, Siete7x and Roddy Ricch, all from the West Coast. This track speaks to Lamar’s Los Angeles roots and how one can’t forget their origins. He reinforces this by saying, “don’t say you hate L.A. when you don’t travel past the ten,” referencing route 10, that marks the outskirts of L.A. and divides the city from wealthier neighborhoods.
“peekaboo” is next, featuring rapper AzChike, and starts with a sample from artist Little Beaver’s song “Give a Helping Hand,” and quickly switches to a fast paced and darker rap beat. Every line in the first verse starts with “peekaboo” creating an easy to follow flow in the first section of the track.
It uses clever wordplay to highlight Lamar’s frustration with other artists’ shallow lyrics while combating superficiality and wanting to remain true to himself. The repetitive nature of the chorus “What they talkin’ ‘bout? They ain’t talkin’ ‘bout nothin,’” shows Lamar’s disdain for this part of the industry.
Then, Lamar gave listeners the 6th installment of his “heart” series, with “heart pt.6,” which shares its title with a song by Drake, specifically made to take a stab at Lamar by stealing his series. In Lamar’s song, however, he doesn’t acknowledge Drake and the song plays like the other “heart” songs. Lamar raps about some of his influences and how he came to where he is, as well as the opportunities he had.
He shows a glimpse of the introspection he went through when creating his fifth album, “Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers,” explaining his motivation for it came from his departure from Top Dawg Entertainment. This track concludes with Lamar rapping on empathy within professional relationships, recalling the empathy given to him when he left hip-hop supergroup, Black Hippy.
The second to last song on the album is the title song, “gnx,” featuring Peysoh, Hitta J3, and Young Threat, all contemporary rappers from California. Lamar, Peysoh and Hitta make up the first half of the number, in a tight back and forth talking about how they put the west on top of hip-hop. Young Threat’s feature is his own verse that compliments the other parts of thes song.
The final track in the set is “gloria,” which features SZA, and again provides listeners with a relaxing melody, showing Lamar’s singing ability with her. This song is about love, similar to “luther,” and is about a struggling couple working things out in a complicated time.
It’s about mutual misunderstandings and not being appreciated for what one does . “gloria’” pulls at the listeners with lines like, “Loved you more, when you flip and lose you s***, I hugged you more.”
The heavy themes of empathy, humility, and gratitude hit hard, making the album impactful to those who take the time to really listen to the message Lamar tells through “GNX.”
