Kendrick Lamar - GNX (2024)

Traditions return as Kendrick assumes the throne

“squabble up” is Kendrick Lamar’s “Made You Look.” That 2002 Nas song celebrated a victory in his beef with Jay-Z. But it also implicated the audience - we got your attention. So it reframed the beef, gave it some bigger meaning. As it had to, to prove that a high level rap battle could be settled cleanly. Jay-Z lost, sulked for a while, and rebounded with an epic rollout for his next album. A few years later they were onstage together.

The Kendrick/Drake thing is something else. Their back and forth was a shock and awe campaign of vile allegations. The slow burn intensity of Kendrick’s songs contrasted with the uncharacteristic sloppiness of Drake’s. Some of it was just too much, like “Meet The Grahams” dissecting Drake’s parents and kid(s?) with unsettling venom. Forget about what’s too far or not in rap beefs - that was not a fun song to listen to. Fortunately “Not Like Us” was, again and again, cementing Kendrick’s victory and giving the beef its signature song.

GNX is Kendrick’s state of the union as the king of rap. In 2024 there’s no question it’s him - such is the power of winning a high stakes battle. Nas also mused on that theme after his victory. Being Nas his take was akin to Shakespeare’s Richard II speech: “…within the hollow crown/ That rounds the mortal temples of a king/ Keeps Death his court and there the antic sits.” Nas was troubled by the fates of previous rap kings, but Kendrick usurped Drake who corporatized the position. So he doesn’t seem so worried. On GNX his inclination is to return rap to its regional roots. It’s a West Coast, LA-centric album.

Hypocritical as this is to say in a review - there’s too much criticism out here. Content is instantly delivered, and judged. And what’s worse, those judgments are also content, so also judged, and so on. In that endless scrolling loop, a song is indistinguishable from some goober’s video reaction to it. The Kendrick/Drake beef played into this dynamic. The actual songs save “Not Like Us” were backdrops to the discussions and theories around them.

The opening track on GNX “wacced out murals” addresses this. It’s a striking symbol, referencing the vandalism of Kendrick’s mural in Compton. It jabs at Snoop and Lil’ Wayne, continuing his kamikaze vibe against the industry. But it doesn’t complain about the tarnished mural. It accepts that we’re in a post-mural (moral?) world, where of course your shit will be vandalized. Fair enough, one must be stronger and more disciplined than ever to thrive.

He’s also fighting against this trend with the quality of his work. You cannot instantly decode a Kendrick album, and usually, after a few listens, they get you hooked, decoded or not. Show up for the concepts, stay for the hits. “squabble up” is one of those, and so pointedly is “heart pt. 6” which reclaims his series after Drake tried to jack that last installment. No coincidence that it’s built on an R&B sampled beat more associated with Drake. The beef is over, but those cold war subliminals will definitely go on.

We’re grateful to hear more confident swagger. Because it’s directed outward: “Keep your head down and work like I do/ But understand everybody ain’t gon’ like you.” We’ve heard him indulge his penchant for introspection to the point of solipsism on his last album Mr Morale & The Big Steppers, and his deeply psychological disses against Drake. But sometimes you just want to hear him rap on some West Coast beats.

So GNX suggests a coarse correction. Drake the streaming era king absorbed regional styles into his own personal monoculture. And now he seems bent on taking the whole streaming game down with him. Kendrick is trying to bring his regional culture back, along with the forebearers. And if he can’t do it, he’ll burn it all down. That seems to be his current vibe - the last king of rap music. We’ll see.