Procrastination Destination: Review of Kendrick Lamar’s new album "GNX"

Well, I was NOT expecting this. Kendrick Lamar, the best rapper alive, surprise-released his sixth official album (and twelfth full-length project) GNX on Friday, November 22. The album’s named after the Buick Regal Grand National Experimental, a luxury car from 1987; the cover art depicts Kendrick standing next to the car.

Musically, the album sees Kendrick getting back in touch with the West Coast hip hop scene that raised him up to where he is today. One criticism I’ve been seeing in some reviews is that it’s not as conceptually coherent as his past projects, but who needs that when your album is wall-to-wall bangers? “Squabble Up,” which was previously teased in the “Not Like Us” music video, is a highlight for sure. And if you haven’t seen anything about the big moment in “TV Off,” go listen to it now before the memes spoil it for you.

GNX is not a beef album — if you’re looking for diss tracks, you won’t find them here. But it’s not purely a victory lap either — just look at the very first track, “Wacced Out Murals.” After an intro from mariachi singer Deyra Barrera (who appears a few more times on the album), Kendrick’s first words on the album are “Yesterday, somebody whacked out my mural.” Even in what has unquestionably been a hugely successful year for K-Dot, where he’s scored multiple #1 hits and announced as the headliner for the next Super Bowl Halftime Show, he’s still constantly watching his back, thinking about murals dedicated to him getting defaced. The rest of the track sees him tying up loose ends from the beef, as he makes callbacks to the diss tracks that I obsessively listened to last spring (to procrastinate on my last round of exams), fires some subliminal jabs at Drake, and gets in some “I’m not mad, I’m just disappointed”–type lines about Snoop Dogg and Lil Wayne. Meanwhile, “Man at the Garden” makes the affirmative case for his legacy — he repeats the line “I deserve it all” throughout the song, and after listening to this album, it’s hard to argue with him.

Beyond Angry Kendrick and Party Kendrick, we also see Kendrick get introspective on “Heart, Pt. 6” (while erasing Drake’s pitiful diss track of the same name from the historical record), channel the spirit of 2Pac on “Reincarnated,” and duet with his former labelmate SZA on the ballad “Luther.” Besides SZA, the biggest name in the list of features is Roddy Ricch, but he plays a minor role; all the other features are West Coast rappers that were fairly underground until now:

This would’ve been a Drake “Hotline Bling” meme, but, well, you know.

Oh man, this album is so great. 10/10. Album of the year for sure. It might even be the best album Kendrick’s ever released. I should really listen to it again, but I have some exams to procrastinate on first. Oh, and if you’re a BBL Drizzy fan, I hope you get straight C’s on your exams. What are you waiting for? Listen to the album here.