Kendrick Lamar Triumphantly Ends the Year With GNX -

By Tim McGuire

In a year already stacked with multiple big names dropping music, the entire world was unaware of one more surprise. Kendrick Lamar, echoing his unannounced drops of diss tracks earlier this year, released a snippet on his YouTube channel and then put out the entire album on streaming platforms moments later. (Curiously, the full version of the snippet was not found on the album). Some fans were already calling Kendrick the rapper of the year with only his feature on “Like That” and 3 diss tracks: a total of four songs. However, with twelve more songs on his resume, a legitimate argument can be made for that title now. Fans quickly found out this isn’t a usual fleshed-out concept album as most expect from the Pulitzer Prize-winning rapper, but rather something for them to digest.

The bold opening track, “wacced out murals,” gives us a sense of what we’re in for over the next 45 minutes. Kendrick talks about the perseverance of his character and morals throughout his rise to fame and even namedrops Snoop Dogg and Lil Wayne, stating confusion with both: Snoop for reacting to Drake’s diss track “Taylor Made” and Wayne for not being selected to perform at the upcoming Super Bowl Halftime Show, taking place in Wayne’s hometown of New Orleans. Fortunately for Drake, no other rappers are named in the rest of the album. Because of these controversial callouts, it sets the bar for controversial lyrics, which doesn’t get heightened any further in the album.

Kendrick has been known to be diverse in his sound, being able to pull off conscious storytelling and hype anthems. That diversity is ever present here with the best example being the back-to-back songs of “reincarnated” and “tv off.” While not necessarily related, it does show the nature of this album: something for the fans. “reincarnated” features Kendrick’s beloved storytelling skills as he takes the position of past music stars and converses with God about his mission on Earth through music. On the flipside, “tv off” shows Kendrick’s equally beloved energy as he raps over two banging beats by Mustard with some of the catchiest flows of the year. These two songs were bound to be beloved by listeners, one for its pure songwriting skill and the other for MUSTAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARD!!!

Another song that has also been gaining traction is “squabble up,” the song previewed at the beginning of the infamous “Not Like Us” music video. Trailing off the hype it garnered from this music video, it even ended up getting its own music video celebrating the West Coast culture. The song is a club banger and is bound to only get more popular as its music video gets dissected even more.

As of the writing of this article, the most popular song isn’t any of the songs listed above, but rather “luther.” This is the first of two collaborations with the award-winning R&B megastar SZA on the album, and it continues to show off how good of a pair they are when it comes to music. If you’re looking for Kendrick to spit bars, you may have to look elsewhere, but its popularity is very understandable with a great Luther Vandross sample and good chemistry between the two. However, this chemistry is heightened on the second SZA collaboration and the closing track, “gloria.” Despite featuring more rapping from Kendrick and fewer shared lines with SZA, the synergy between the two feels stronger than ever to bring the album to a glorious close with one of its highest highlights.

Many highs, however, come with some lows. When listening to this album, I found myself not caring too much for two specific tracks: the title track “gnx” and “peekaboo.” Having to compete with all the other songs in the album, these two stick out like sore thumbs through their lack of something memorable. “gnx” is a short posse cut, which is fun, but it’s fine. The track suffers a bit from a lackluster beat, which “peekaboo” also suffers from. “peekaboo” has its problems though, with the most interesting chorus for better or for worse. It’s admittedly a little catchy, but it feels uninspired. These two tracks hurt the album more when it’s noted how late they are placed in the runtime, being within the last 4 songs of the album.

Despite those two weak moments in the last half of the album. I would still argue that the last half of the album is better than the first half. It already has “tv off” and “gloria,” and it also has two songs I’ve yet to discuss: “dodger blue” and “heart pt. 6.” Despite “dodger blue” being the shortest song on the album, I found it to be one of the album’s highest highs with a nasty bass line and great features from Wallie the Sensei, Siete7x, and Roddy Ricch. It’s the song that is the most heavily leaning toward R&B instead of rap, and it pays off immensely. To make up for the short runtime of “dodger blue,” the R&B-inspired sound continues into the five-minute story “heart pt. 6,” a narrative of Kendrick’s time with Top Dawg Entertainment, the label he used to be signed with. With a groovy beat that anyone could get into and a compelling story told by Kendrick, there’s something for everyone in this track.

It should be noted that Kendrick Lamar has historically released parts of his Heart series before an album, and his sixth installment is interestingly included on the album. Paired with the nature of the album as a side project and theories circulating about the “squabble up” music video referencing many double albums, it’s beginning to seem like this is just the appetizer.
Even if Kendrick doesn’t take the title of Rapper of the Year for 2024, he’s got a hell of a resume planned for 2025. A halftime show in front of the entire country and a supposed brand-new album is bound to keep his name in discussion for even longer in the world of hip-hop. As for GNX, it will be interesting to see how this album will be remembered as time continues. There are easily more highs than lows here, but my prediction is that this album’s legacy will be Kendrick’s triumphant ‘victory lap’ over Drake. 2024’s biggest event in rap was undoubtedly the back-and-forth feud between the two, and everyone stopped what they were doing whenever one of the two dropped a song. With some of these songs seemingly inspired by the sound of “Not Like Us”, it’s hard to forget the historic battle when listening. Only time will tell what Kendrick has in store for his fans beyond GNX, but the album will more than sufficiently feed his fans who were getting hungry.