Album cover // Kendrick Lamar
By: Jordan Sarver-Bontrager
Staff-Writer
On Nov. 22, I walked into the Preface meeting without a story idea related to music. I figured I’d just look for new music on Spotify and do a typical review. HOWEVER, amidst the fun of our annual Friendsgiving, I received a notification on X from Kendrick Lamar, who had just posted the link to his new album, “GNX”. There was a lot of build up to this release, but Kendrick never announced the album, so this was a surprise drop.
Editor’s note: For those, like me, who don’t know what GNX means, it stands for Grand National Experimental – a vintage, limited-edition Buick car, the same featured in the album cover.
Kendrick is having a fantastic year. In May, he engaged in a very high-profile beef with Drake and J-Cole (who backed out of the feud). Kendrick released four diss tracks on Drake: “Euphoria”, “6:16 in LA”, “Meet the Grahams” and the song of the summer, “Not Like Us”, with decidedly iconic lines like “Certified lover boy? Certified pedophile.”
All of these songs included vicious lyrics attacking Drake’s character (something I personally didn’t have a problem with, as I’ve always hated Drake). Kendrick unequivocally, unilaterally won the beef. There is no argument.
Kendrick is now set to headline the halftime show of a certain, very copyrighted, very large, annual football event in New Orleans.
We now arrive at “GNX”, his shortest release at just over 44 minutes. Given the rollout of the album, I’m not entirely sure if this is the album from Kendrick. I believe there will be a much larger release in 2025, and “GNX” is a taste of what’s to come.
Part of why I don’t think this is the actual album is because this feels low effort from Kendrick, but low effort from Kendrick is a lesser artist’s best effort.
The album starts out strong with “wacced out murals” and then “squabble up,” a song that was teased in the “Not Like Us” music video. Then we get “luther,” which features SZA. This song is one of the best melodic rap songs from Kendrick; it’s smooth and dreamy, which usually isn’t how I’d describe his work. SZA’s feature on the song is very strong as well.
Later, we hear “reincarnated,” where Kendrick raps about artists that he feels spiritually connected with. After that, there’s the most popular – and, in my opinion, best – song on the album, “tv off”. It’s one of the best songs in his discography. The beat sounds like a reworking of the “Not Like Us” beat, and the switch that leads to the producer tag and Kendrick screaming “MUSTAAAAAAARRRRRRRRD” is fantastic.
One thing that I think is underappreciated about the album is its Latin influence. A classical guitar is used on several of the tracks to give them a Latin flare, and the beats on several songs feel very Latin-influenced, especially in “wacced out murals”, “luther”, “reincarnated”, “heart pt. 6” and “gloria”. The album’s opening and closing tracks also feature vocals from Mexican singer Deyra Barrera.
The album ends very strongly with “heart pt. 6”, “gnx”, and the very melodic “gloria”. The last of these songs also features SZA. Her parts on this album are truly highlights of the album.
Overall, this album feels like a celebration of Kendrick’s career to this point. He’s taking the victory lap of all victory laps, and honestly, he has every right to. He won the biggest rap beef of all time, he is performing at the big game in February, and he is arguably the most well received hip hop artist of all time. While it’s less reflective of the socially-conscious, thought-provoking subgenre that fans might be used to, it still offers a great listening experience and high-quality lyricism.
It feels as though Kendrick has nothing left to prove. He’s already at the top of his game, but once you reach the top, you will do anything to stay there. I’m feeling a score of 9/10 on this album – one of the best albums of the year.