On November 22nd, 2024 Kendrick Lamar, without warning, dropped his 6th studio album, GNX.
This album is not only very west coast styled, but has some of Kendrick’s best storytelling. The song “Reincarnated” showcases both of these elements very well. The song sees Kendrick rapping over a Tupac beat. Three verses accompany this, the first from the point of view of legendary guitarist John Lee Hooker, the second from singer Billie Holiday, and the third from Kendrick’s own perspective. Kendrick discusses Hooker’s life of gluttony, Holiday’s life of drugs, and finally, Kendricks’s own struggles with right and wrong. The final verse presents a conversation between Kendrick and God. They discuss how musicians are often not great people, and how Kendrick can be better.
Another track on this album, titled “Gloria,” is a love song with excellent storytelling. The song, accompanied with an amazing feature from SZA, explores Kendrick’s life with an unnamed woman. He talks about his life and how this girl helped him become who he is today. At the end of the song, Kendrick reveals that the woman he has been talking about was really his pen. This paints the song in a completely different light. Each line that was previously thought to be about a girl means something entirely different than before because we now know that it’s about how penmanship and writing rap has positively impacted his life.
In “the heart part 6,” the sixth installation of Kendrick’s ongoing “the heart” song series, he discusses the rap group he was a part of when he was younger. The group, “Black Hippy,” never saw much success together, and in this track Kendrick reminisces about the old days. In the end, he says that he was the reason the group never made it big–he believes that he had moved on creatively.
One of the most popular songs from GNX is “squabble up.” The intro to this song was shown in the beginning of the “Not Like Us” music video–this song is very energetic, with many catchy lines and hooks.
GNX is one of Kendrick’s more diverse albums, with some songs such as “reincarnated” being deep introspectives and other songs like “squabble up” being catchy and energetic.
