Kendrick Lamar gave music listeners an early holiday present Friday with the surprise drop of a new album.
The Grammy winner’s 12-track GNX is his first release since 2022’s Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers and his sixth studio album overall. It also comes just months after his rap battle with Drake.
Lamar first teased the album with a cover art and video snippet of GNX, which features multi-instrumentalist Jack Antonoff as a co-producer on every track except for Peekaboo. Other notable producers include Sounwave and DJ Mustard, who both contributed production on the hit Not Like Us, the ubiquitous diss track emanating from the Drake feud.
Lamar’s former Top Dawg Entertainment labelmate SZA appears on a couple songs including Gloria and Luther, which also features sampled vocals from Luther Vandross and Cheryl Lynn through If This World Were Mine.
On the opening track Wacced Out Murals, Lamar raps about cruising in his Buick GNX (Grand National Experimental). He brings up Snoop Dogg posting Drake’s AI-assisted Taylor Made Freestyle diss track on social media and Nas congratulating Lamar for being selected to headline February’s Apple Music Super Bowl Halftime Show in New Orleans.
Lamar also shows admiration for Lil Wayne, who expressed his hurt feelings after being passed over as the headliner in his hometown.
Massive success, Grammy wins
Lamar, 37, has experienced massive success since his debut album good kid, m.A.A.d city in 2012. Since then, he’s accumulated 17 Grammy wins and became the first non-classical, non-jazz musician to win a Pulitzer Prize for his 2017 album DAMN.
The surprise release caps a big year for Lamar, who was featured on the song Like That with Future and Metro Boomin — a track that spent three weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 this year.
Lamar is up for seven Grammys, fuelled by Not Like Us, which earned nods for record and song of the year, rap song, music video as well as best rap performance. He has two simultaneous entries in the latter category, a career first: Like That is up for best rap performance and best rap song, too.
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