“Kendrick dropped” might be the scariest phrase out of hip-hop in 2024. However, the surprise release of Kendrick Lamar’s sixth studio album, “GNX,” should strike less fear and instead stoke hype in a largely barren year for rap, albeit with some hiccups along the way.
After releasing his last album with his former label, Top Dawg Entertainment, in 2022, Lamar decided to surprise fans this year through an at-first secret feature on Future and Metro Boomin’s “Like That,” warming up a cold war between him and rapper Drake. The quintessential beef of 2024 lasted for the better parts of April and May, technically ending with the embarrassingly lackluster “The Heart Part 6″ from Drake but truly ending a day before with Lamar’s mega-hit “Not Like Us.”
Lamar could have easily walked into the new year knowing he was the biggest rapper of 2024 off a handful of singles. Instead, “GNX” is his victory lap. Nonetheless, the album’s replayability and expectedly clever wordplay are not enough to live up to Lamar’s usual standards, which says more about the pedestal he stands on in hip-hop and the lack of clear competition than it does about “GNX” as a project.
The first few songs set the album’s bar high, to a point where it’s near impossible for the latter half to reach the same heights. “squabble up” was bound to be a hit after being teased in the “Not Like Us” music video, yet somehow, the full version is even better. Lamar takes what could have been just another fun rap song and stretches it to its potential, smartly integrating a sample of Debbie Deb’s “When I Hear Music” into the song’s DNA.
The song’s instrumental from longtime collaborator Sounwave and pop producer Jack Antonoff similarly takes creative liberties. The team takes an otherwise generic trap beat and transforms it into a jittery electronic hip-hop hybrid, keeping the natural bounce that comes with rap and the Debbie Deb song intact.
Lamar’s unequivocal dedication to everything West Coast mostly works to substitute a cohesive sonic style, including mariachi singer Deyra Barrera’s enthralling contributions and the album’s laidback energy. The absence of the West Coast national anthem “Not Like Us” is made up with its spiritual successor, “tv off,” also produced by Mustard and undoubtedly one of Lamar’s hardest songs.
Despite slightly veering too much into familiar territory with its production and Lamar’s flow, “tv off” quickly justifies its existence as a continuation. While “Not Like Us” was the last blow to Drake, “tv off” is Lamar cleaning the blood off the blade before going back to killing when the beat drops.
The instantly iconic moment where Lamar screams “mustard!” as if going Super Saiyan exemplifies his long-standing penchant for odd vocal inflections. This time, he resembles his younger cousin and labelmate Baby Keem more than himself, showing how much he can assimilate as part of the new generation. The addition of roaring horns in the background matches Lamar’s aggression in the album’s highest point.
“wacced out murals,” although among his weakest openers for an album, gets across how reactionary Lamar has become in the past year. Typically, he’s focused on communicating big ideas through personal experiences like on “Mr. Morale and the Big Steppers” or finding raw emotion in semi-fictional narratives with “To Pimp a Butterfly.”
However, it becomes clear from the first few lines that Lamar is still in battle mode, touching on disappointing Lil Wayne over his upcoming Super Bowl Halftime show with the line, “Used to bump Tha Carter III, I held my Rollie chain proud / Irony, I think my hard work let Lil Wayne down” and the vandalism of his mural in Compton.
In the last few songs, “GNX” loses steam and begins to show signs of collapse but still stops just short of a dramatic dip in quality. The title track combines the album’s worst traits, centering the production around a cheap-sounding piano that does neither Lamar nor the three features — Peysoh, Hitta J3 and YoungThreat — any favors.
Although it is great to see Lamar sharing the spotlight with up-and-coming rappers, and the “Tell ‘em Kendrick did it” chorus is, in theory, compelling, the track does little to justify its existence besides being a lighthearted exercise. If anything, “GNX” could have been released without the title track’s inclusion.
Whether purposeful or not, “GNX” is Lamar conforming to the rap industry’s current state in an effort to prove that, yes, he can be a full-fledged commercial artist if he wants to. While comparatively, he does so better than most, the attempt automatically means he’s distancing from the forward-thinking creativity that separates him from nearly every other rapper.
To Lamar’s credit, “GNX” may be the first time he has realized he doesn’t have to save the world on every album or have clear answers to life’s biggest questions. At worst, the album is a silent white flag from Lamar, wanting to separate from the cathartic “Mr. Morale” in exchange for further winning a beef he already won when “euphoria” dropped. But even on the worst day for him and “GNX,” the welcomed pledges to the West Coast allegiance and the album’s direct nature is a minor win in the context of his career.