High Expectations, High Payoff: Gnx review
It’s been two months since Kendrick Lamar surprise-dropped his newest album, GNX. The dust has settled, and after listening non-stop to it since its release (and not many more credentials besides that), I feel ready and qualified to give my review.
There were obviously high expectations leading up to this release, considering the absolutely insane popularity of the Kendrick vs. Drake feud this past summer, culminating in the massively viral and decidedly victorious “Not Like Us”. Rumors of a new Kendrick album have been circulating for over a year, the feud only adding fuel to that fire. Everyone, from longtime fans to first-time listeners, wanted to see what Kendrick would do next. And now that the highly-anticipated album is out; it’s official: it’s really, really good.
It’s different to his other projects, which was a bit of a learning curve for me; nearly all of his past releases, from Section.80 to Mr. Morale and the Big Steppers, have felt extremely thematically consistent, if not fully crossing the line into concept albums. GNX doesn’t feature the same concrete timelines or cinematic skits as Good Kid, M.A.A.D. City or To Pimp a Butterfly. It doesn’t take place over a single night like GKMC or S.80, and the songs don’t tie into one another as much as TPAB, DAMN., or even MMATBS. If anything, it's most structurally similar to his first mixtape, Overly Dedicated. But its deviation from the norms Lamar himself has created doesn’t make this album any less strong or any less coherent, nor does it make it feel any less authentically his. Solid themes reveal themselves throughout the project, and many of them are familiar to his past albums: finding inner peace, fighting generational trauma, working towards self-improvement, paying homage to hip-hop legends, and carving out a space for Lamar and his peers within the industry.
I’ll admit I was skeptical when I saw Jack Antonoff’s producing credit; while he’s worked on some incredible tracks for Taylor Swift, Lorde, and Lana del Rey, a purely hip-hop album definitely feels like new territory for him. Honestly, though it absolutely worked; Antonoff and hip-hop production legend Mustard are an unexpected co-producing dream team.
Standout songs from the album include “squabble up”, “luther”, “reincarnated”, “tv off”, and “dodger blue”, though there’s honestly not a weak one to be found. I find the hook in “peekaboo” a little annoying, and title track “gnx” fades into the background a bit, but even they’re still solid. “Wacced out murals” does an excellent job of setting the tone for the rest of the album, “man at the garden” is vulnerable while still boasting, and “heart pt. 6” — taking back Lamar’s long-standing naming tradition from Drake — is an apt tribute to the artists who came up with Lamar at TDE. Even “gloria”, which I considered a bit of a forgettable track on my first lesson, skyrocketed in my estimation once I actually read the lyrics (asking your pen if its favorite movie is The Notebook? Hilarious).
“Squabble up” has incredible ear-catching production, and Roddy Ricch sounds smooth as hell on “dodger blue”. Obviously, the “MUSTAAAARD” line from “tv off” has taken on a life of its own, with every brand absolutely scrambling to make its own reference to it on Twitter, but the rest of the song is brilliant, too; I’ve had Lefty Gunplay’s ridiculous-sounding “crazy, scary, spooky, hilarious” stuck in my head since my first listen. I also have to give so much credit to “luther”, which is one of the smoothest songs Lamar’s ever released. SZA’s performance is flawless, the Luther Vandross sample is integrated beautifully, and it’s just an excellent rhythmic track all around. I’m also a sucker for the more vulnerable tracks, the strongest of which is “reincarnated”; I believe Lamar is at his best at his most emotionally stripped down, and “reincarnated” has the hardest-hitting lyrics on the album. His conversation with God in the last verse? Insane.
Overall, it’s perhaps still too early to rank GNX within Lamar’s whole discography, but it’s certainly not too early to say that it’s an absolute triumph. It still may never touch TPAB or GKMC for me, but it’s a damn good album (even a DAMN. good album?) and I will absolutely continue to listen to it on repeat, well into 2025.