BLACK VINYL In 2024, we got to see Kendrick Lamar in real time. The Compton native wasn't descending from the mountain to deliver shrouded statement pieces and orchestrated opuses -- he was battering Drake in lived hours, "put[ting] one hundred hoods on one stage," headlining America's most celebrated sporting event. Capping the year off with a focused set of West Coast scorchers, his surprise sixth set, GNX, sees the rapper embrace being the moment; this is lightning-in-a-bottle Kendrick. GNX's first order is to yank rap back to its regional roots: the album's sound is as L.A. as "California Love" or a Toddy Tee cassette. The driving heart of the record is the regional bounce retooled for "Not Like Us," which forms the anthemic trinity of "squabble up," "hey now," and "tv off." With the stamp of authenticity -- "teleport to Bullets Road and dig up all my relatives" -- he digs sparse, fresh tracks through the sound alongside the unlikely Jack Antonoff; "hey now" captures the ghost of a stadium roar, "gnx" upturns its off-kilter pianos and basses, and "wacced out murals" plays like the child of Yeezus with metallic sirens and ravenous silences. Kendrick, running in tandem with a pack of L.A. up-and-comers, speaks with the chest-fire abandon of his city, firing off at will while still leaving room for the reflective "heart pt. 6" and "gloria." If Mr. Morale postured Kendrick in absolution -- "I am not your saviour" -- then GNX is a staggering rekindling of the "King Kunta" flame: "Who put the West back in front of shit? Tell 'em Kendrick did it" he spits on "gnx," before inviting Peysoh and Hitta J3 up to bat. He's "prophetic" and "the greatest of all time" -- a visioned torchbearer for the culture. And he's not the only one to feature here. On "reincarnated," Kendrick continues his storied engagement with the figurehead of Tupac Shakur, wearing the rapper's vocal style like a spiritual shawl over a flip of "Made N*****" as he slots his soul into the lives of Billie Holiday and John Lee Hooker. Deyra Barrera's searching vocal snippet -- the project's conceptual through-line -- seats Kendrick next to Anita Baker; there are eyebrows raised at Lil Wayne and Snoop, harmonic connections with SZA, and memories of wanting to flow like Soulo. And for every face named there's another unspoken -- new flows from Drakeo and Keek, the blueprints of Nipsey and Mac Dre, the spirit of Nas on the "One Mic"-like "man at the garden." It seems little coincidence that the concept of the album revolves around a black Buick GNX -- itself a literally "black" icon. Even when he's basking in triumph, Kendrick proves as complex as the present moment. Building a DAMN.-like skeleton from the kindlings of "The Heart Pt. 5," GNX is a pillar of reflective realness, a flag planted in the lineage of Black musical visionaries, a silhouette of the West Coast in the high beams of fame -- and Kendrick's most speaker-knocking set to date. A1 Kendrick Lamar– Wacced Out Murals 5:17A2 Kendrick Lamar– Squabble Up 2:38A3 Kendrick Lamar & SZA– Luther 2:58A4 Kendrick Lamar– Man At The Garden 3:53A5 Kendrick Lamar– Hey Now 3:38A6 Kendrick Lamar– Reincarnated 4:36B1 Kendrick Lamar– TV Off 3 :41B2 Kendrick Lamar– Dodger Blue 2:11B3 Kendrick Lamar– Peekaboo 2:36B4 Kendrick Lamar– Heart Pt. 6 4:52B5 Kendrick Lamar– GNX 3:14B6 Kendrick Lamar & SZA– Gloria 4:48
