In 2024, Kendrick Lamar became the master of the anti-rollout: Since the start of the year, he’s turned 12 words’ worth of X posts and a couple of tracks accompanied by still images to Instagram into an era-defining rap beef, a number-one single, and a booking to perform at the Super Bowl LIX halftime show, in New Orleans. Between his guest appearance on Future and Metro Boomin’s “Like That” and his chart-topping victory lap “Not Like Us,” Kendrick seized the country’s attention by lobbing diss after diss at its most commercially dominant rap star, not quite deposing Drake, but certainly leaving a permanent stain on his image, accusing him of sex trafficking, pedophilia, and cultural colonization.
The beef simmered, after Drake’s half-hearted and occasionally confusing response “The Heart Part 6,” as Kendrick made his moves strategically, showing out for his Pop Out concert, “Not Like Us” video, and Super Bowl announcement. This morning, however, Kendrick uploaded a cryptic, minutelong snippet titled “GNX” to YouTube, and, even more unexpectedly, dropped his entire sixth studio album just before noon. The new LP is more accessible than 2022’s complicated Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers, harkening back to the pop of 2017’s DAMN. and dabbling in bouncy West Coast club slappers and slick synth-pop across a relatively tidy 45-minute experience. Further exploring the nervy, Drakeo the Ruler-inspired flow that made the punchlines on “Not Like Us” so memorable, he’s also brought a new generation of SoCal upstarts along for the ride, tapping local emcees like AzChike, Peysoh, and YoungThreat for collaborations. Here are five takeaways that stood out while spinning GNX the first few times.
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After ushering in summer 2024 with an all-out offensive against the OVO camp, Kendrick spares Drake the ire (or satisfaction) of another name-drop on GNX, but that doesn’t mean he’s taken a pacifist turn. With opener “Wacced Out Murals,” he comes out swinging, taking quick shots at those who’ve aligned with the opposing side. Spitting venom over sirens and staccato strings, Kendrick puts his former heroes in the crosshairs, reflecting on the disappointment Lil Wayne expressed when Kendrick was selected to play the Super Bowl halftime show in Weezy’s hometown, and calling out Snoop Dogg for posting Drake’s AI-assisted “Taylor Made” diss to Instagram upon release. GNX may not be a major mobilization in the war between Aubrey’s Angels and TDE’s disciples, but there’s just enough pot-stirring to fuel discourse through Thanksgiving.
Getting Hyphy
Despite the single’s litany of quotable punchlines, it was arguably Mustard’s production on “Not Like Us,” which arranged a stuttering Monk Higgins sample over railgun kick drums, that kept audiences hitting replay well beyond its release date. His work set the tone for the menacing hyphy sound that dominates much of GNX. Mustard was enlisted to produce two tracks on the record, “Hey Now” and “TV Off,” and the club-ready cuts “Squabble Up” and “Peekaboo” were clearly produced with “Not Like Us” in mind. (“Squabble Up,” of course was already previewed in the “Not Like Us” video.) There’s still plenty of room for quiet contemplation on GNX, but there’s no shortage of party playlist fodder either.
Antonoff on the Beat
Fans may have been surprised to find out that Jack Antonoff was listed as a co-producer of Kendrick’s “6:16 in LA” diss in May, but the credit makes much more sense now. Along with Top Dawg Entertainment’s in-house producer Sounwave, the pop super-producer worked on almost all of GNX’s tracks, likely contributing to the album’s lush timbres, orchestral flourishes and synth-heavy nostalgia fuel. Kendrick’s rumored Taylor Swift collaboration may not have materialized on GNX, but her right-hand man’s fingerprints are all over the new release.
Heart Pt. 6 (Kendrick’s Version)
With “Heart Pt. 6,” Kendrick continues the long-running biographical series that he’s been updating since 2010, ignoring Drake’s own, unauthorized entry of the same title, which served as a de facto white flag ending the spring’s diss war. This time around, Kendrick details his split with TDE to form his own creative communications company, pgLang. Former labelmates Ab-Soul, Jay Rock, and Schoolboy Q appear as characters in Kendrick’s recollections of early recording sessions, which he says taught him the skills he needed to forge his own path: “I guess my motivation was the yearnin’ for independence,” he raps. “Now it’s about Kendrick, I wanna evolve, place my skillset as a Black exec.”
A Few Vicious Bars
- “I put a square on his back like I’m Jack Dorsey” (“Hey Now”)
- “How many heads I gotta take to level my aesthetics?/Hurry up and get your muscle up, we out the plyometric” (“TV Off”)
- “Fuck a double entendre, I want y'all to feel this shit/Old soul, bitch, I probably built them pyramids” (“Wacced Out Murals”)
- “How annoying, does it angers me to know the lames can speak/On the origins of the game I breathe? That’s insane to me” (“Man at the Garden”)
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