On November 22, 2024, around 12:05 PM, Kendrick Lamar surprise released his sixth studio album, GNX. It is titled after the Buick Grand National Experimental car, which is featured on the album cover. The album is only 12 songs and 44 minutes long. It is co-produced by Kendrick’s long-time collaborator Sounwave and has featured artists as well as producers throughout. This is Kendrick’s first album release since his rap beef with Drake. Although Drake is never explicitly mentioned, there are subtle references to him and the beef. As a whole, this album has no overall concept, which is rare for Kendrick’s discography. Instead, the songs have their own concepts that are separate from each other.
Lamar’s, GNX
The album’s first track is titled “Wacced Out Murals” and has a length of 5:17, making it the longest song on the album. It opens with Spanish vocals from Deyra Barrera, whose vocals also feature on the beginnings of the 6th and 12th tracks. Kendrick has an aggressive delivery throughout the song with a confrontational attitude toward the rap industry. He mentions multiple other rappers by name and provides his thoughts on the state of his career through well-crafted verses. Overall I found the production on this track to be fairly average, but the song still displayed Kendrick’s rapping ability with three strong verses and a good chorus. It felt to me like this track served as a good exposition for the rest of the album and helped the listener understand the mindset Kendrick was in while creating it. 8.3/10
The second song, “Squabble Up” was first teased at the beginning of the “Not Like Us” music video that was released on July 4th. I think this is one of the catchiest and most fun songs on the album, featuring very upbeat rapping and production. Its short runtime and enjoyable energy make it one of the more replayable tracks. 8.0/10
Kendrick works alongside singer SZA on track three, “Luther” which is the most popular song on the album.It opens with Kendrick delivering a verse on his own and then SZA enters for the main chorus. In the rest of the song, their vocals are layered on top of each other creating a beautiful blend of their voices. This song displays how great it can be when rappers and singers work together to make melodic tracks. SZA and Kendrick’s chemistry is then backed up with an amazing beat that perfectly matches their melodic delivery. 8.9/10
“…their vocals are layered on top of each other creating a beautiful blend of their voices.”
The fourth song of the album is titled “Man At The Garden.” This is a rather egotistical song, as Kendrick states why he believes he deserves the title of “the greatest of all time” and repeats that he “deserves it all” in the chorus. For most of this song, Kendrick keeps a quiet and monotone delivery and the beat remains similarly simple and slow. This is, until, in the 3rd verse he adapts a more angry and loud tone as the beat also crescendos until he delivers the line “Tell me why you think you deserve the greatest of all time.” The beat to this song as well as the 3rd verse’s crescendo is extremely reminiscent of Nas’s classic “One Mic” track, which Kendrick seemingly drew inspiration from for this song. Although the song is lyrically strong and has an interesting concept, besides the 3rd verse, the song gets a little bit boring for me and isn’t one that I find myself listening to that often. 7.4/10
“Hey Now” is the 5th song of the album and it features a closing verse from West Coast rapper Dody6. Similarly to the previous track, Kendrick’s first verse and chorus have a fairly monotone delivery over a minimal beat. In the second verse and the bridge, Kendrick’s delivery becomes more dynamic, meanwhile, synthesizers are layered into the production. After Kendrick’s verse and bridge, the synthesizers are removed and the beat is then again stripped down into its minimal form as Dody6 concludes the song with a great verse. Kendricks’s changes in delivery from verse to verse, the calculated usage of synths, and Dody6’s impressive feature verse kept me engaged with this song from start to finish. 8.8/10
Kendrick’s surprise-teaser Instagram post
On the 6th track, “Reincarnated” Kendrick samples a 2Pac instrumental and interpolates 2Pac’s flow. In the first two verses of the song, Kendrick raps from the perspective of two unnamed deceased music artists, one in each verse. He raps about how these artist’s fame led to greed, lies, addiction, and their separate eventual downfalls. In the third and final verse, Kendrick raps from his own perspective and has a conversation with God. I think this 3rd verse is one of the best-written verses on the album. Within it, “God” breaks down Kendrick’s imperfections and advises him on how to avoid the decline the other artist experienced. This is definitely one of the more conceptual tracks on the album but Kendrick leaves the meaning of the reincarnation up to the listener’s interpretation. I think this song’s amazing writing and the well-executed 2Pac interpolation and sample make it the best on the album. 9.3/10
The 7th song “TV Off” features production from Mustard and an outro from Lefty Gunplay. Kendrick has worked with Mustard multiple times before, including on track 5, “Hey Now” and more notably “Not Like Us” which was the final, and most popular, diss track from his beef with Drake. “TV Off” has a noticeable similarity to “Not Like Us” in the production, but is not another diss track. Mustard’s production is definitely a highlight on this track, with halfway through the song the beat switching to a high-energy, horn-focused beat. I think this song has some of the best production on the whole album and Kendrick matches it with high energy and catchy hooks. I also thought Lefty Gunplay’s outro was a good way to end the song. 8.4/10
“I feel its short runtime does not allow it to fully develop as an interesting song.”
The 8th song “Dodger Blue” is the shortest song at only 2:11, and has features from WallieTheSensei, Roddy Ricch, Siete 7x, Sam Dew, and Ink. Overall this is one of the less notable songs on the album. I feel its short runtime does not allow it to fully develop as an interesting song. The most memorable part of the song for me was the features, the chorus from WallieTheSensei, Roddy Ricch & Siete 7x as well as Ink and Sam Dew’s outro were good but I wish Kendrick gave them more time to perform on the song. As for Kendrick’s performance and the production, I wouldn’t say that they are bad, but they didn’t interest me enough to make this song stand out. 6.7/10
Track 9, “Peekaboo” is another short song, and features two verses from AzChike. Upon first listen this was my least favorite track. The chorus is extremely repetitive and Kendrick’s second verse is pretty weak. Although I still think these factors are true, over more listens I grew to enjoy AzChikes feature a lot and Kendrick’s first verse. 6.8/10
Track 10, “Heart pt. 6” is the 6th installment in Kendrick’s “The Heart” series. It samples the song “Use Your Heart” by SWV and uses vocals from the song as a chorus. In the verses of this song, Kendrick speaks about the creation of the TDE label and the formation and break up of the group Black Hippy. He tells an interesting and well-written story about his early years in the music industry and how his friends have helped him reach his current success. The SWV samples perfectly complement these great verses and help keep the song engaging through its longer runtime. 9.1/10
The title track “GNX” is the 11th song, and has features from Hitta J3, YoungThreat & Peysoh. On this song, each of the features has one verse while Kendrick just does the chorus. Hitta J3 and Peysoh have pretty good features but they are unable to redeem the flaws in the rest of the song. YoungThreat has what I think is the worst feature on the album with a monotone whispering delivery that sounds more like spoken word than rapping. As for Kendrick’s chorus, it is pretty weak and gets annoying after multiple listens. This is also the worst-produced song on the album as the beat sounds very awkward and ruins any chance this song had of being good. Although I do like Hitta J3 and Peysoh’s verses, the rest of this song is extremely weak and it is definitely my least favorite on the album. 4.7/10
The Buick Grand National Experimental Car
The 12th and final track on the album “Gloria” also features SZA. In the verses, Kendrick describes the complicated romantic relationship he is in. At the end of the 3rd verse, he reveals that the woman in this relationship is a metaphor for his “pen” or his creative expression through music. This concept of personifying a physical object has been done many times in hip hop but Kendrick executes it well in his own unique way. SZA’s feature, doing the chorus and outro, is also great and again shows how well the two work together. This is another well-written track with great production to go along with the choruses and verses. 8.6/10
Overall, GNX is a great album that shows how Kendrick can continue to make good music. However, when you compare it to other albums in Kendrick’s discography, it is definitely among the weaker ones. It feels more like a fun and simple album with a few outstanding songs. Overall, I would give this album an 8/10.
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