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The Tufts Daily
Where you read it first | Monday, February 3, 2025

Kendrick Lamar’s ‘GNX’ moves on from spring feud, returns to West Coast style

With references to Los Angeles’ past and criticisms of the hip-hop industry, Lamar reminds us why he is one of the top rappers of the current era.

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Kendrick Lamar is pictured performing.

Kendrick Lamar released his sixth studio album, “GNX,” on Nov. 22 with essentially no notice. A surprising but not unexpected drop, Lamar delivers a distinctly West Coast-style project. However, the feud with Drake cannot be ignored in the discussion of this album.

In “Family Matters” (2024), Drake accused Lamar of no longer being connected to his Los Angeles roots and abandoning the people of Compton. Throughout “GNX,” Lamar proves these points wrong and goes on scathing attacks on the state of the hip-hop industry and the people who led it there.

In “wacced out murals,” Lamar reflects on his struggles with the pressures placed on him by the hip-hop industry and the current state of the genre. As an opening track, it defines the purpose of the album — to disprove accusations that Lamar is incapable of producing palatable music and to save the soul of hip-hop.

This track goes beyond the Lil Wayne-Super Bowl LIX drama — it goes so far as to criticize political correctness and the hip-hop industry’s reliance on charts and numbers.

The next track, “squabble up,” disguises its message with a sample from Debbie Deb’s “When I Hear Music” (1983) and a danceable West Coast beat that was teased at the beginning of the “Not Like Us” (2024) music video. Lamar declares victory over Drake, saying that he feels good about his success. The “squabble up” music video is also a celebration of LA and its culture over the past few decades.

In “luther,” which is Lamar’s fifth collaboration with SZA, the two artists yearn for a world where pain is eradicated and love can triumph.  

The fourth track, “man at the garden,” is a reflective song for Lamar, as he explores his motivations for personal success and what drives him to be a better father and son. We also see that Lamar’s career has indeed improved his family’s life. It can be interpreted as a message that Lamar is sharing to motivate people to pursue what they want because they deserve it all too.

The fifth track, “hey now,” deals with Lamar’s fame and his ability to remain above the exploitative nature of the industry. I’m way too important to ever let you slide on me again is a declaration from Lamar that he will not let anyone undercut his vision.  

The sixth track, “reincarnated,” includes a sample from 2Pac’s “Made N-----” and looks back on Lamar’s artistic career and his relationship with God. To use a 2Pac sample cannot be ignored, as Lamar admires 2Pac and has cited the deceased rapper as a major inspiration. Lamar’s vocal delivery is reminiscent of the sampled song and 2Pac’s distinctive style — husky and aggressive.

In this track, Lamar explores the duality of his own lyrics —  his desire for peace and unity, while wrestling with his penchant for conflict.  

The seventh track, “tv off” has garnered a lot of attention online recently. The DJ Mustard-produced beat parallels “Not Like Us,” and Lamar yelling Mustard’s name have made this track stand out. This song proves that the success of “Not Like Us” did not just come from the lyrical destruction of Drake or elaborate orchestrations, but also the rhythmic flow and vocal delivery that the Lamar-Mustard duo have cooked up.

The eighth track, “dodger blue,” feels like a relaxed interlude. In just over two minutes, Lamar talks about the glamor of LA and his pride in the city. He reps the West Coast while flexing on those who hate the area and people from it. The track serves to dismantle the surface-level perceptions about the neighborhoods south of Interstate 10.

The ninth track, “peekaboo,” is a metacommentary on artists who make songs and act tough without saying anything substantive or new — the chorus says as much. The most humorous sign of this are the lyrics, “Bing-bop-boom-boom-boom-bop-bam/ The type of s--- I’m on, you wouldn’t understand.”

The tenth track, “heart pt. 6,” continues Lamar’s “The Heart” series and reclaims the title from Drake, who used it as the title for his pathetic response to “Not Like Us,” The Heart Part 6. The track itself does not address the feud, instead telling a story about Lamar’s rise as a rapper with Top Dawg Entertainment. 

The eleventh track, “gnx,” has an odd instrumentation with solid, confident rapping flows. In the titular track, Lamar and all of the featured artists assert their dominance in reviving the rap scene and their street cred. Lamar takes a step back on this track to let featured artists Hitta J3, YoungThreat and Peysoh rap about their influence in the LA rap scene.

The final track, “gloria,” is about Lamar’s relationship to his writing process. His second collaboration with SZA on this album, the song initially seems to describe the highs and lows of a past relationship. Towards the end, Lamar reveals the metaphor he has been building up. In Spanish, “gloria” means “glory,” so the glory he is talking about is not a woman but instead the glory of his craft.

Summary Brushing aside criticism that he could only remain relevant in 2024 through his feud with Drake, Kendrick Lamar has experimented with new flows, remaining authentic and aggressive. This album shows that he has more to give and more stories to tell.
4.5 Stars