Kendrick Lamar surprised fans Friday with the release of his new “GNX” album.
As per usual, AJC entertainment reporter DeAsia Paige broke the news internally. From there, the team at UATL was off to the AirPods, laptop speakers and trunk subwoofers — while still working, of course — to find out what Kendrick was talking about.
Credit: UATL/AJC
Credit: UATL/AJC
The 12-track LP is Lamar’s first in more than two years, released after a highly publicized rap battle with Canadian pop rapper Drake and the recent announcement that Lamar will headline the 2025 Super Bowl halftime show. It follows Lamar’s critically acclaimed “Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers,” a collection of 19 songs which won a Grammy award for Best Rap Album in 2023, and multiple 2022 honors including Album of the Year at the BET Hip-Hop Awards and Favorite Hip-Hop Album at the American Music Awards.
While Lamar is a native of the Los Angeles suburb of Compton, California, Atlanta factors into the conversation around his music “GNX.”
The city and its culture were a major topic on Lamar’s chart-topping track “Not Like Us,” which seemingly ended the battle with Drake. Because of those references to ATL, and other nods to Atlanta’s hip-hop relevance in his previous musical releases, it’s natural that Atlantans have opinions.
Below, UATL reporters and contributors weigh in on “GNX,” giving their thoughts and reactions to the new album.
DeAsia Paige
Credit: DeAsia Sutgrey
Credit: DeAsia Sutgrey
“GNX” is a virtuosic finale to the biggest victory lap of 2024, aka the year of Kendrick Lamar. On the surprise album, the Compton rapper weaponizes his career journey with heavy reflection and heavier braggadocio (“Old soul, b----, I probably built them pyramids,” he said on the searing album opener, “wacced out murals”).
For 44 minutes, “GNX” showcases Lamar’s stylistic mastery, vocal delivery and musical depth. He primarily leans on his West Coast inflections and influences, which were centered in his “Pop Out” concert this summer and show up on “GNX” as he pays homage to Tupac and collaborates with lesser-known Los Angeles rappers Dody6, AzChike and Wallie the Sensei. This doubling down on Lamar’s hometown roots becomes the thesis for an album which floats on eclectic beats, bolstered by thumping bass, jazz synths and ’80s EDM and soul samples, provided by producers Sounwave, Taylor Swift hitmaker Jack Antonoff and others.
Throughout “GNX,” Lamar takes listeners on a scattered 12-track ride filled with manifestations, love lines, threats and anti-pop testaments that further cement his status as hip-hop’s peerless provocateur. He goes full boogeyman on the Debbie Deb-sampled “squabble up.” On “luther,” (which samples the Cheryl Lynn and Luther Vandross ballad “If This World Were Mine”) he teams with SZA and swiftly transforms into a dreamy lover. He later samples SWV and gets candid about his success with former label Top Dawg Entertainment on “heart pt. 6.” Then the Mustard-produced “TV off” sounds like a “Not Like Us” companion, as Lamar dives deeper into pure villainy.
“GNX” isn’t as splashy as his previous albums. It’s not a big concept project and doesn’t boast blockbuster features beyond SZA, but that’s not needed. The album shines from Lamar shape-shifting into different characters as if he’s performing a one-man show — all while underscoring that, for him, that’s exactly what the rap game is.
Gavin Godfrey
Credit: Kelsey Ryan Photography
Credit: Kelsey Ryan Photography
In the spirit of the holiday, I’m thankful for Kendrick Lamar. Why? Because families needed something else to heatedly debate over pecan pie and a weak slate of NFL Thanksgiving Day games. Enter the man set to perform at halftime during Super Bowl LIX.
Speaking of pro football, with “GNX,” it feels like Kendrick Lamar is asking for his flowers as, arguably, rap’s current most valuable player, lyrically speaking.
Of course there has been and will continue to be a lot of talk about “wacced out murals,” and that’s fine. I’m more struck by some of the quieter, more subtle moments such as “gloria,” “luther,” “heart pt. 6” and “man at the garden.” We hear from a concerned family man with everything to lose on the latter. At the same time when he says, “I’ll burn this b---- to the ground, don’t you play with me,” it’s a reminder of an artist not afraid to squabble up (pun intended) with any challenger.
As an Atlanta kid, hearing Kendrick Lamar’s nod to D4L’s “Scotty” and the legendary “spaceships on Bankhead” line made me smile. Also, I can’t be the only one jonesing for a joint Kendrick Lamar and SZA album. Make it happen.
Christopher A. Daniel
Credit: Contributed
Credit: Contributed
“GNX,” which borrows its title from a black vintage 1987 Buick Grand National Experimental, allows Kendrick Lamar to do what any Black man would do when he needs to vent: hop in the car, turn the volume up and go for a drive around town.
But Lamar does more than let the top back. He lets us ride along in the passenger seat for a cruise on Interstates 10 and 405, for 45 minutes. He uses the moment to lyrically confide in us how his rap heroes and peers failed him on “wacced out murals” and “man at the garden.”
He also lets us know he can still keep it gangster. “hey now,” “TV off” and “peekaboo” are trunk-rattling cuts that revive the West Coast hip-hop sound that raised him. He put the car in cruise control and distorts a few old-school jams from vocalists like Luther Vandross and Cheryl Lynn on “luther,” freestyle singer Debbie Deb on “squabble up” and vocal trio SWV on “heart pt. 6.”
It’s a smooth ride.
Joycelyn Wilson
Credit: Tabitha Jackson
Credit: Tabitha Jackson
I was sitting at Houston’s restaurant on Northside Parkway having lunch with my homegirl when she happened to check her phone. “Kendrick just dropped,” she said with a smile. It was 12:15 p.m. An hour later we were both bumping “wacced out murals,” “luther,” “squabble up” and “man at the garden,” driving away in our separate cars.
When “hey now” came on, I had to pause to call her. “I’m startin’ to see spaceships on Rosecrans,” I sang when she picked up.
This isn’t the first or second time Kendrick has sprinkled Atlanta’s cultural sauce across his projects. For example, the sonic and lyrical influence of Outkast is obvious on his debut album “good kid, m.A.A.d city,” where he also mentions listening to Jeezy as the soundtrack to the robbing spree described on “The Art of Peer Pressure.” Then, there’s “DAMN.,” which is heavily produced by Mike WiLL Made-It, another ATLien. From subtle nods to direct shots on Metro Boomin and Future’s “Like That,” to straight-up history lessons about the city’s postbellum cultural currency on “Not Like Us,” Atlanta’s influence remains woven into Kendrick’s tapestry of greatness. With “GNX,” Kendrick also uses these nods as a launchpad for broader cultural commentary.
In quintessential Lamarian fashion, “GNX” celebrates the culture while also challenging it, pushing boundaries and redefining what we should expect from hip-hop in its fifth decade. He channels Tupac Shakur in sound, spirit and flow on “reincarnated,” indicating he’s living through the ancestors and harbingers of hip-hop’s trap aesthetic.
Lastly, I couldn’t help but notice how Kendrick has flipped back to lowercase titling for his songs, much like he did on “To Pimp a Butterfly.” It’s a subtle design choice that feels intentional, signaling a return to a stripped-down, reflective approach to his storytelling. It complements the themes of the album: affirmations of greatness, hope and redemption, paired with his relentless accountability for the darkness hip-hop has floated toward.
Mike Jordan
Credit: UATL/AJC
Credit: UATL/AJC
From the way Kendrick references recent events to the general feeling of the entire album, it sounds like Kendrick made most if not all of “GNX” between when he trounced Drake and after the Super Bowl announcement. That fact propels a very good album into greatness.
Kendrick has officially taken what used to be Kanye West’s place for my musical needs. I can tell you exactly where I was in life when “The College Dropout,” “Graduation” and “My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy” were released, and all of them arrived at personally challenging times when I needed a sonic ego boost. “GNX” does exactly that, in the defiant knock of “wacced out murals” opening track, in the I’m him energy driving “man at the garden” and in the undeniable bops “squabble up,” “TV off,” “peekaboo” and “hey now,” which of course gives ATL its proper respect with the “spaceships on Rosecrans” nod to Fabo and D4L.
This album — and the news that Drake is suing his own record company, claiming they helped juice Kendrick’s streams, which is just sad and wild and you hate to see it — seems to close the books on any discussion of who came out on top of the beef. It also reaffirms that Kendrick’s fearlessness didn’t dissolve after “Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers,” an album I thought was brave but lacked bravado (which was probably the idea). Even with “goin’ up your rank” assertions of dominance in hip-hop, “GNX” still succeeds in tackling themes like maturity and growth, reconciliation and love. I just like that he’s saying all of it with his chest.
I think we all needed this one. Maybe not Drake, but the rest of us.
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