Kendrick Lamar: His name has been everywhere in the past year. On November 22nd, he dropped a surprise album, titled GNX. His whole discography has been deeply focused on how he was raised and how that affected him, and this record follows along the same lines. Kendrick Lamar has won a total of 204 music awards; including 17 Grammys, 37 BET Hip Hop Awards, and a Pulitzer Prize, making him the first hip hop artist in history to win this award dedicated to excellence in all forms of creative media, including music. He is nominated for seven awards in the 2025 Grammys.
This brand new album is 12 tracks long with a run time of 44 minutes. It’s his sixth studio album to date, mainly produced by Kendrick himself and Jack Antonoff, Taylor Swift’s main producer. There are quite a few features, many of the names smaller, and some big names, like the two songs featuring SZA, “luther” and “gloria.” The cover shows Kendrick leaning on the back of a 1987 Buick GNX, the inspiration for the album’s name, in black and white.
“wacced out murals”
He starts off this song using the voice of mariachi singer Deyra Barrera singing in Spanish, which translates to “I feel your presence here/Last night/And we start to cry.” He uses the first verse to demonstrate the dislike he holds for a mural depicting him in his hometown which was vandalized recently. He appears to still be speaking to Drake throughout the whole song with small references to his previous diss tracks. Verse two shows his disappointment in the rap industry as a whole, calling out multiple rappers, including Snoop Dogg. He says he’s done with being connected to the industry, “What bridge they done burnt? All of them, it’s over with.” The last verse is dedicated to firing shots at all the artists who took Drake’s side, saying he’s not done yet.
“squabble up”
If you’ve seen the Not Like Us music video, then you’ve already heard the beginning of this song. It’s the full song of the clip people deemed “Broccoli,” now we know the real title, “squabble up”. In this song he samples Debbie Deb’s 1983 track “When I Hear Music”. This song is closer related to Not Like Us, with it being more like a victory lap than anything; he already has everything he wants and this is just him poking at Drake with a stick.
“luther (with SZA)”
This is one of two songs featuring SZA on this album. They have numerous collaborations, their most popular being the song “All The Stars,” made for the Black Panther movie. This is a song in which the lyrics are super important, and Kendrick and SZA play different characters. It’s about what Kendrick thinks of the women he’s with at the time; the lyrics encourage the woman to be herself and unique, while Kendrick says the people against him don’t matter to him. The song laces their smooth voices with lyrics of trust and love, deeply rooting the story.
“man at the garden”
The beat of “man at the garden” is mellow, overtaken by the lyrics of the song. It makes sense as this song speaks on how hard he worked to get where he is, and how he deserves the fruits of his labor. He speaks about his faith in God and how he’s instilled that in his son, to hopefully follow in his footsteps. He also states how his mother deserves all of the good karma he can give her. He asks, “Tell me why you think you deserve the greatest of all time?” directed towards Drake, as Kendrick doesn’t believe he deserves a title like that.
“hey now (feat. dody6)”
Kendrick obviously has his eyes on the money when he says, “Hey now, say now, I’m all about my Yen”. He expresses in this song that everything he does is publicized and he isn’t very fond of it. Instead, he hides what he does to stay out of the spotlight. He notes that he believes he’s so legendary himself he “Need[s] a fee just to breathe”. Dody6, the feature of this song, also descends from Compton, which could be one of the reasons for him ending up on the album. Lamar likes highlighting smaller artists from where he’s from and displaying their talent to his fanbase.
“reincarnated”
An iconic beat from the first second, sampled from another very famous Compton rapper, this track is driven by one of 2pac’s beats. This connects to everything that’s been happening recently in the Drake and Kendrick conflict. One of the reasons Kendrick was so disrespected by Drake was his use of the AI-generated voice of Tupac Shakur in a song, which was eventually taken down by Shakur’s estate. This song goes through two of Lamar’s “past lives,” the lives of two people he feels connected to, and his current life as Kendrick Lamar. He says he had two previous lives, one as a man in Michigan in 1947, John Lee Hooker, and another as a black woman in the Chitlin’ Circuit, which is a group of performance venues in the Midwest; this is more than likely Dinah Washington.
“tv off (feat. lefty gunplay)”
As he starts this track, he decides to start with the chorus before the first verse, saying that he feels there aren’t many good people left in his industry. He says he intentionally uses his lyrics to spark anger, as “somebody gotta do it.” He’s telling his fans and other performers to turn the tv off, or cut the dramatic aspects out of their life and be real. He goes on to say “This revolution been televised, I fell through with the knick-knacks,” as the beef between him and Drake put him directly in the spotlight, even winning him the 2025 Super Bowl Halftime show, which he refers to a few times throughout the song.
“dodger blue (feat. wallie the sensei, siete7x, roddy rich)”
This track shows a lot as to how Kendrick Lamar feels about modern California. He opens the song asking what school someone went to, then listing off many high schools in different areas of Los Angeles, like Gardena High School and Compton High School. He says he hates people who don’t see L.A. for its deep culture, but what they think of when they hear Los Angeles, he demonstrates this by saying “Don’t say you hate L.A. when you don’t travel past the 10,” referring to Interstate 10, the highway that separates Hollywood, Beverly Hills, and many other iconic places from the rest of Los Angeles. He then says that he’s ready to come after everyone who’s taken advantage of the hip hop industry and changed it to the ingenuine way it is now.
“peekaboo (feat. azchike)”
This song has a lot of repetitive lyrics, even as early as the intro, repeating the same line eight times. Throughout the song, the word “peekaboo” is used at the beginning of every line of verses one and two. The feature of this song, AzChike, is also from the Los Angeles area. Lamar decided to evenly split the verses between him and AzChike, each getting two. The song’s chorus references the song “The Day The Party Died” by Lecrae; the album to which it belongs, Anomaly, which was released in 2014, shares the theme of calling out dishonest rappers in the industry.
“heart pt. 6”
TDE, also known as Top Dawg Entertainment, was a record label founded by Anthony Tiffith. TDE signed a multitude of artists that Kendrick has worked with, like Zacari and SZA. This is because from 2005 to 2022, Lamar was also signed to TDE, before he moved on and founded pgLang with fellow member of TDE, Dave Free. This song is his story of being in Top Dawg Entertainment and how he found success with Dave Free. It references multiple other people connected to the record label like ScHoolboy Q, Jay Rock, 2TEEZ, RET ONE, and MoosaTDE. He speaks about how he appreciates the fact no harsh feelings were displayed when he decided to leave TDE and start his own label, and many of the people he mentions are still close friends with him now.
“gnx (feat. hitta j3, youngthreat, peysoh)”
This song is more a display of the artists he features than a story or a show of his skills like the other songs, to the point Kendrick Lamar doesn’t even get a full verse. Each of the featured artists get one verse and a chorus with Kendrick, while he gets just the first chorus. All of these artists are from the Bay Area of California.
“gloria (with SZA)”
This is the finale of the album, and the whole song is about a lover of Kendrick’s. SZA acts as the lover in the song, with her having the chorus, outro, and brief interlude. The moment before the interlude, Kendrick states “Fabrication, I disgust you,” the interlude contains SZA, acting as if she’s angry, saying “I bring the blessings, I gave you power”. Some lines reference Lamar’s fiancée, Whitney Alford. You’re made to believe that Kendrick is talking about a lover, but at the last line of the third verse, he reveals that the lover was his pen the whole time.

I’m an avid Kendrick Lamar fan, and I have been for years. Of course, this makes me somewhat opinionated on his music. However, I loved the album; I thought it was so rich in storyline, as his music usually is. I believe he timed the release of this album perfectly, as the Drake conflict dies down. The songs that aren’t in reference to the conflict get a chance to shine through. There was a good balance of lyrically driven tracks and beat-driven tracks. It was overall another amazing record.