‘GNX’ by Kendrick Lamar - Album Review

A fantastic showcase of Kendrick’s versatility and a tribute to his artistry.

★★★★¼

It’s almost as if the world stops whenever Kendrick Lamar drops. Merely half-an-hour after the release of a snippet titled ‘GNX’, Kendrick releases a full-length LP of the same name. Normally Kendrick would surprise announce the date of a new album prior to it’s release, however with GNX he just dropped it out of the blue. It was shocking, it was confusing, but above all else, it was very exciting. 

Coming off the back of one of the biggest hip-hop feuds of all-time against Drake, Kendrick was on top of the industry. The general consensus was that he won this battle, with his huge hit diss track ‘Not Like Us’ being the final nail in the coffin of it all. After this Kendrick was announced to be headlining the Super Bowl in 2025, acquired numerous Grammy nominations and garnered mass critical acclaim over all his diss songs in the year. 

After ‘Not Like Us’ took over the mainstream, fans started to fantasise over the thought of a full west-coast inspired album from the Compton rapper. That is exactly what Kendrick provided with this album. You can feel the spirit of the west-coast oozing through every track on here, especially due to the fact that the feature list is almost entirely made up of LA artists. The only issue with this stylistic choice is that the instrumentals tend to get repetitive. Songs like ‘tv off’, ‘squabble up’ and ‘peekaboo’ all follow the same formula of little instrumentation with booming 808s. Granted, the whole album isn’t subjected to this formula. There are a fair few sample-based tracks which sample songs from some big names such as Luther Vandross on ‘luther’ and 2Pac on ‘reincarnated’. Then apart from those, Kendrick goes for a more minimalist approach on songs like ‘wacced up murals’ and ‘man at the garden’.

Lyrically, this is Kendrick at his angriest and most aggressive in his whole career. If his control verse was a showcase of his hunger to prove he’s the best in the industry, then songs like ‘wacced out murals’ is a relentless assault on the pressures of the industry and his commitment to his artistry. ‘man at the garden’ puts a spotlight on Kendrick’s ego, with him listing his accomplishments and all that he’s done right in life whilst consistently repeating ‘I deserve it all’. It really borders the line between arrogance and self-recognition through lines like “A close relationship with God, Whisper to me every time I close my eyes, He say, ‘You deserve it all’” which juxtapose with lines where he puts his pride on show such as “Writin' words, tryna elevate these children, That's why I deserve it all”. 

The song ‘reincarnated’ might be one of Kendrick’s most well-written songs ever. The first two verses show Kendrick writing from the perspective of two artists that he feels connected to on a personal and artistic level, acting as his past lives. The first verse seemingly takes from the perspective of John Lee Hooker, an R&B guitarist from the 50s. The second verse takes from the perspective of a black singer that struggled with drug addictions, likely being Billie Holiday. The third verse is written in Kendrick’s perspective in his current life. This verse is a full-blown conversation with God himself, akin to the themes of To Pimp A Butterfly. Kendrick is trying to convince God that he has overcome his pride by telling him of the good deeds he has done. However, the turning point is when God says to Kendrick “I can tell you who you are, You fell out of heaven” leading this conversation to shift to God speaking to both Kendrick and Lucifer himself at the same time. The rest of the verse is God telling Kendrick/Lucifer of how he has been reincarnated throughout many generations to lead others into sinful lives through their music, painting Lucifer as the angel of music through the line “My greatest music director was you”. The song climaxes with Kendrick looking to separate evil from the music world, rewriting his story and promising to use music as a vessel of good to promote peace and harmony instead of manipulating people for evil. 

This whole album all relates back to Kendrick’s artistry in some form or another, whether it’s through the writing or the sonic selection. Songs like ‘gloria’ and ‘reincarnated’ use vivid imagery and storytelling to paint a picture of Kendrick’s love for his artistic vision, with ‘gloria’ disguising a typical romance song as the love he has for writing. ‘heart pt. 6’ is a heartfelt look back on the ‘Black Hippy’ days of TDE, detailing why the group didn’t work, why Kendrick left the label and how healthy relationships can be maintained after parting ways. Whereas, songs like ‘gnx’ and ‘squabble up’ aren’t lyrically profound or conceptually rich, they just display the sound of the west-coast and is a way of Kendrick paying tribute to where he was raised. 

The only real downsides to this album would be the sonic vision of some of the tracks. The title track, despite having one of the most crisp and punchiest drum patterns I’ve ever heard, just falls flat. The piano melody that supports this drum pattern is so awkward and off-putting and overall I’m just not a fan of Kendrick’s performance on it. ‘peekaboo’ has some really nice flows across it but I’m not overly sold by the beat, it feels quite dry until the synths really kick in the background. ‘dodger blue’ has a nice chorus by various LA artists but Kendrick’s delivery doesn’t really pique my interest. 

Overall, this album is a fantastic surprise drop. The west-coast influence is so present across this record, even if it worked better in some instances compared to others. Now it may not be as conceptually driven as most of Kendrick’s previous work, but there is still thematic consistency within the record and Kendrick portrays that in such a subtle and flawless way. Such an awesome listen for a random Friday evening.