Throughout the past couple of decades, the legend of Kendrick Lamar has drastically infected the culture of hip-hop and music, which is why there was mass hysteria in response to the surprise release of his sixth album GNX. Last heard from Lamar, he was in his feud with Canadian rapper, Drake. In this debate of who is the greatest of all time, both rappers engaged in beef that can only go down as one of the biggest spectacles in rap history. The two exchanged a sequence of songs calling the other out, starting with “Like That” by Future, Metro Boomin, and Lamar, and ending with “The Heart Part 6” from Drake, which is referenced in GNX with track 10, “heart pt. 6.” However, pop culture beef is not the only thing referenced in this album as Lamar remains resolute in communicating vulnerability, identity, and culture. Despite being Lamar’s sixth album, this is his first album under his own label pgLang, showing that Lamar has begun reconstructing his career and even hip hop in his own style.
GNX is an album that drives through different melodies and lyricism with social commentary. The 12-track album begins with “wacced out murals”, one of my favorites from this release. The melody of this track begins mariachi like with Deyra Barrera singing “Siento aquí tu presencia La noche de anoche Y nos ponemos a llorar” then leaping into cinematic sonic elements to blend with Lamar’s rapping. This track sets up the rest of the album as it shows us that the rapper behind the mic is not Kendrick Lamar that won the Pulitzer Prize in 2017, this is the Kendrick Lamar filled with animosity and anger. My favorite lyric from this track would be: “Fuck a double entendre, I want y’all to feel this shit” because the rapper whom everyone would praise for his lyricism is throwing this image of himself out of the spotlight, and employing experimental melodies to evoke the emotions he is feeling.
Skipping a bit forward in the album, track 3 “luther” has been highly praised and hyped for its lush and romantic sounds, harmonies, and of course the collaboration with Lamar’s long-time friend, SZA. Similarly, track 12 “gloria” uses this style of production but at the conclusion of the album, Lamar uses this track to talk about his legacy or his glory (gloria in Spanish) which is a prevalent language seen in tracks like “wacced out murals” and “reincarnated”. The outro of this track starts with “Gloria, I wanna take you to euphoria”, referencing his diss track “Euphoria” where Lamar unfiltered himself to call out the fakeness of Drake. This track is a manifestation of Lamar’s career but also his goal to bring back authenticity to the hip-hop industry.
GNX continues to explore themes of inner turmoil, competition, and Lamar’s identity in other tracks (i.e. “squabble up”, “man at the garden”, “heart pt. 6”, and “tv off”). These tracks make many references to hip-hop icons like Snoop Dogg and Tupac but Lamar never explicitly references Drake, who many people expected a call out for. Throughout the album, Lamar makes his feelings and emotions like anger, love, and even annoyance, known. In “heart pt. 6”, this track which not only adds to Lamar’s Heart series, is almost the same title to Drake’s diss track, “The Heart Part 6” which takes jabs at Lamar’s professional and personal life. Rather than using this track to jab back at Drake, unfiltered and ruthless, Lamar remains vulnerable and zooms into his departure from Top Dawg Entertainment. In this track, Lamar raps, “Poured everything I had left in the family business / Now it’s about Kendrick, I wanna evolve, place my skillset as a Black exec‘”, emphasizing his appreciation and efforts in his past career with TDE but now he is progressing into his new role as the owner of pgLang.
There are more tracks in this album and much more to the lyrics and production, but no matter what he releases, time will stop to appreciate Lamar’s work. Whether he will surprise us with new works or surprise us with more authenticity in the hip-hop world via his label, the music industry is about to change. I deeply appreciated the different emotions evoked through the melodies and lyrics, but most of all I appreciated the raw and authentic feel of this album. Despite his evident anger towards different people, Lamar’s collaborations and references strengthen the community he deeply loves and works hard for.
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