The greatest rapper of our generation, and perhaps ever, has released his debut album GNX under self-owned label pgLang: a mixed bag that sees Kendrick Lamar flex his pen’s steroid-pumped muscles over the loosest selection of tracks he’s arranged to date.
For a musician of such propheticism, 2024 has been an off-kilter year for Lamar. The Compton rapper’s name has been on the tip of everyone’s tongue following a vicious beef with megastar Drake – a feud that saw the soon-to-be Superbowl headliner release enough singles to comprise an entire EP’s worth of material.
The arrogant braggadocio of summer hit Not Like Us reeked of an artist revelling in newfound freedom, released from previous label Top Dawg Entertainment, his prevailing status as an artist of such critical acclaim and now braced to drop the ‘saviour’ label he disavowed with 2022’s Mr Morale and The Big Steppers.
It’s this exact mentality and sound that informs GNX: a project that feels more like a mixtape than the measured, meditative albums we’re used to from an artist of Lamar’s calibre. This is abrasive West Coast fun, filled to its brim with tonally bizarre accent switches, triumphant melodies, blaring 808s and violent lyricism.
Whilst it’s certainly interesting to see Lamar reinvent himself in such a brutally unashamed manner – a persona so unserious you have to return to 2010’s Overly Dedicated to find traces of it — it’s tough to ignore that GNX collapses under the weight of such crushing expectations.
wacced out murals sees Kendrick take aim at Lil Wayne, Snoop Dogg and just about anyone the Compton rapper can think of. Set to the backdrop of ear-shattering bass stabs, flittering hi-hats and ferociously infective loops, Lamar teams up with longtime collaborator Sounwave and more surprising addition Jack Antonoff to establish a sound of total fury, one that proliferates the majority of this project.
At his softest, Kendrick returns to soul-inspired roots with luther – welcoming SZA to deliver one of GNX‘s best moments atop a lush, string-heavy, Luther Vandross sampled R&B instrumental – then with reincarnated and heart pt. 6.
In the former, Lamar reminds us why nobody else across the hip-hop landscape can compare: a stunning storytelling ballad that sees Kendrick rap from the perspective of a 1940s guitarist, an opiate addict, then from God. Building upon a classic 2Pac beat, the 37-year-old delivers some of his tightest flows to date whilst displaying a self awareness that GNX as a whole seems to mostly lack.
It’s not over yet
— Hitta J3 (@Hittaj3tml) November 23, 2024
get Ready For Curfew
The track-list then descends into entirely forgettable material that would hardly make a D-sides compilation from his previously stellar projects. The weakest cuts, tv off and peekaboo, are bizarrely uninspired when viewed through the lens of Lamar’s stacked discography; borderline unlistenable if not for fleeting moments of technical brilliance from the Compton rapper.
Whilst Kendrick as a performer is firing on all cylinders throughout GNX‘s runtime – the least we can expect from a rapper rightfully brandished with the ‘GOAT’ label – it comes with an abandonment of the grandiose production, arrangement and thematic quality we’ve also came to expect from a man firmly etched into hip hop’s Mount Rushmore.
For any fans who feel similarly, at least we have the suspiciously absent track that Lamar previewed in his promotional video for GNX, which you can listen to below.
And if the rumour mill is to be believed, perhaps we can expect another album from America’s favourite rapper landing soon.
Featured image attribution: Batiste Safont, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
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