Editor’s note: The following article is an op-ed, and the views expressed are the author’s own. Read more opinions on theGrio.
There are few things more exciting than receiving what feels like an endless barrage of texts at the exact same time in various group chats. Usually, that means that something important in pop culture happened. Well, that’s exactly what happened around noon on November 22, in the year of our Lord two thousand and twenty-four. Kendrick Lamar Duckworth, better known as Kendrick Lamar, dropped the album “GNX,” a nod to the Buick Grand National Regal GNX, a rare muscle car released in 1987 — which also happens to be the year Kendrick was born.
“GNX” arrives at the tail end of what has been a banner year for Kendrick Lamar. From epic diss records directed at Drake to crafting the biggest song of his career (and also Drake diss) in “Not Like Us” to his “Pop Out” concert live-streamed on Amazon Prime, Kendrick has won the year. He even received seven Grammy nominations, largely due to “Not Like Us.” And that winning will continue into the new year. In September, Kendrick was announced as the headliner for the 2025 Super Bowl to be held in New Orleans. That announcement led to some controversy and comments from several New Orleans legends like Juvenile and most notably, Lil Wayne, who felt snubbed; Kendrick addresses that head-on on the album’s opening track (all of which are stylized in lowercase), “wacced out murals.”
The point is that Kendrick has been up for the majority of 2024. And then, while the rest of us were minding our own business listening to other albums that just dropped, like Ice Cube’s “Man Down,” I started getting text after text — and I knew that could only mean that something important happened.
At this point in my life (and maybe even yours), Kendrick Lamar releases are drop-everything-and-listen events. I immediately went to a streaming service, pulled up “GNX” and hit play.
Admittedly, my first run-through of the album left me slightly confused. Kendrick has arguably never been more popular or more known; if ever there was a time to pull a Kanye West and release his own version of “My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy”— an album largely produced to be the best, most representative of Kanye’s greatness—now would be that time. “GNX” has a lot more modern West Coast vibes and is definitely more for his diehard fans than anybody who just started paying attention because of his beef with Drake. Maybe that was the point; maybe not.
Either way, I can imagine people whose favorite lines are “O-V-Ho” not being immediately enthused. I wasn’t immediately enthused (though highly entertained by how attuned Kendrick is to what’s being said about him on social media by, well, everybody) but as always happens with Kendrick albums, repeated listens usually course-correct any immediate humdrumness I have about his projects. For instance, now that I’ve listened a few times, I am looking forward to hearing Black college bands playing “tv off,” which sounds like the first cousin of “Not Like Us.” Shoot, the Bayou Classic, which also takes place in New Orleans on Thanksgiving Day every year, might be the first time we hear “tv off” played by a band.
Since the album hasn’t been out long enough for an actual review, the group chats and social media are going to go ham with immediate reactions. This is the part of music releases I love, when everybody is listening to the same thing offering premature takes that won’t hold up even a day later. I’m not different; I’m sure to say a thing or two about this album that will sound stupid by Monday. Shoot, I may already have. But that’s what happens when great artists release music. We spend time with and then speak with others and analyze, criticize, praise, destroy and let all of our biases fly free. I love it.
As a point of note, one of Drake’s disses that didn’t land during this past summer’s fracas was titled “The Heart Part 6,” a clear attempt to usurp Kendrick’s pre-album release practice of dropping a non-album song titled “The Heart.” Well, Kendrick put a song on this new album titled, you guessed it, “The Heart, Pt. 6” which I imagine will overtake Drake’s version soon. Well done, Kenny.
Squabble up.
Panama Jackson is a columnist at theGrio and host of the award-winning podcast, “Dear Culture” on theGrio Black Podcast Network. He writes very Black things, drinks very brown liquors, and is pretty fly for a light guy. His biggest accomplishment to date coincides with his Blackest accomplishment to date in that he received a phone call from Oprah Winfrey after she read one of his pieces (biggest) but he didn’t answer the phone because the caller ID said “Unknown” (Blackest).
