Titled after theBuick Regal model and followinghis feud with Canadian musicianDrake,GNX is Lamar's first album to be released after his departure from longtime labelsTop Dawg Entertainment andAftermath Entertainment.[1][2]GNX was released to widespread acclaim: multiple critics hailed it as a successful reimagination ofWest Coast hip-hop and one of the best albums of 2024; a few otherwise thought that the album was not as groundbreaking or too polished. The album was Lamar's fifth number one on the USBillboard 200 chart. It also topped the charts in numerous countries, including Canada, Netherlands, Sweden, Australia, Denmark, and the UK; and top five in Poland, Nigeria, France, and Hungary.
Kendrick Lamar released his fifth studio album,Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers, on May 13, 2022, to critical and commercial success.[3][4] After concludingThe Big Steppers Tour in March 2024,[5] Lamar shared on social media that he had purchased a vintage, limited-run 1987Buick Grand National Experimental (GNX),[6] a high-spec version of the same model that his father used to take him home from the hospital following his birth.[7][8]
Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers was Lamar's last album withTop Dawg Entertainment (TDE), to which he had signed in 2005.[9]Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers was also Lamar's first album with his own companyPGLang.[10] Before his feud with Canadian rapperDrakere-escalated,[11] he quietly departed fromAftermath Entertainment and signed a direct licensing agreement with its distributor,Interscope Records.[12][note 1] Lamar released five standalone singles during the latest installment of their conflict, including theBillboard Hot 100-toppers "Like That" and "Not Like Us".[13][14] The rapper teased a then-untitled song in the beginning of the music video for the latter.Entertainment Weekly observed its inclusion and fan speculation that it could be included in his next album;[15] the song was revealed to be "Squabble Up".[16][17]
Rumors surrounding Lamar's forthcoming album began to emerge, with some being denied by close affiliates.[18] After announcing that he was chosen as the headlining act for theSuper Bowl LIX halftime show,[19] Lamar surprise-released "Watch the Party Die" on hisInstagram account.Rolling Stone said that the track bodes well for his next album–"whenever it comes".[20]Dazed, on the other hand, predicted that he was gearing up for an "astronomical" era.[21] By October, Lamar's longtime collaboratorsTerrace Martin,SZA, andSchoolboy Q confirmed that he would be releasing new music.[22][23][24]
GNX consists of 12 songs and has a running time of 44 minutes and 20 seconds, the shortest studio album of Lamar's career.[25] Although no tracks from hisfeud with Drake are included, its sentiment "still looms over the album", according toVulture.[26] It is aWest Coast hip-hop album,[27][28] drawing on both classic and contemporary conventions of the genre.[29] According toRolling Stone, the album is a tribute to Lamar's native Los Angeles, prominently infusingG-funk throughout its compositions.[30]
The regional Mexican music and mariachi singerDeyra Barrera is featured on three songs, both the opening and closing tracks as well as "Reincarnated", Lamar having discovered the singer when she performed at aLos Angeles Dodgers World Series game that he attended in 2024.[31] The production team played Barrera the instrumentation arrangements, and gave her a description of the emotions Lamar wanted to evoke throughout the album.[32]
"Wacced Out Murals" opens the album with Lamar addressing the reactions to his announcement as the Super Bowl LIX halftime show headliner, additionally namedroppingNas,Snoop Dogg andLil Wayne. Jonah Kreuger ofConsequence described it as "fiery" and "intensely confrontational".[33] "Squabble Up" features a performance of "myriad voices, octave changes, and shrieks" that sound as though "he's on the precipice of losing control", according to Matthew Ritchie ofPitchfork; it has been compared to the work of the lateDrakeo the Ruler.[34] "Luther" has been described as a "noticeably tender moment" on the album, with lyrics about imagining a better future for one's loved ones;[35] it features a prominent sample ofMarvin Gaye's 1967 song "If This World Were Mine" sang by the titularLuther Vandross. On "Man at the Garden", Lamar details the trials and tribulations of his career,[29][36] repeatedly declaring that he "deserve[s] it all".[37] "Hey Now" features elements ofbounce music[38] and multiple lines possibly alluding to his feud with Drake.[39] Built off the instrumental of "Made Niggaz" byTupac Shakur, "Reincarnated" sees Lamar present himself in the perspectives of musiciansJohn Lee Hooker andBillie Holiday[a] before the lyrics transition to him having a conversation with God.[28]
"TV Off" features "clipped strings" that "dissolve intoViking-berserker horns" halfway through.[41] As the percussion of the second part fades in, Lamar is heard "animatedly" screamingMustard's name; this has since become anInternet meme.[42][43] "Dodger Blue" is a tribute to theculture of Los Angeles with dominant elements of G-funk.[36] "Peekaboo" features "skeletal but bouncy" production;[44]Variety described Lamar's lyrics as being "layered in eccentric wit and convincing menace".[45] On "Heart Pt. 6", he recounts his history with TDE and the supergroupBlack Hippy, acknowledging his role in the group falling apart due to creative differences.[46]Ben Sisario ofThe New York Times noted that it is an "implicit rejoinder" to Drake'sdiss track of the same name, which in itself was taken from Lamar's "The Heart" song series.[47] The title track, "GNX", features Los Angeles rappers Peysoh,Hitta J3 and YoungThreat. Lamar does not have a verse, instead providing a hook questioning "who put the West back in front of shit?"[28][48] On "Gloria", Lamar discusses his relationship with his personified pen as an ode to writing music;[38][49][50] multiple critics noted its similarity to "I Used to Love H.E.R." byCommon and "I Gave You Power" by Nas.[29][37][45]
On November 22, 2024, Lamar unexpectedly premiered a one-minute teaser forGNX onYouTube and Instagram.[47][51] The video contained a snippet of an unreleased and untitled song, which the media has tentatively called "Bodies".[52][53]GNX wassurprise-released throughPGLang andInterscope Records 30 minutes later.[54][55]
On December 3, 2024, Lamar andSZA announced theGrand National Tour in support of the album.[56] The tour began on April 19, 2025, inMinneapolis and will conclude on December 11, 2025, inSydney, Australia.[57][58]
Upon release,GNX received positive reviews from music critics.[71][72][73] According to the review aggregatorMetacritic,GNX received "universal acclaim" based on aweighted average score of 87 out of 100 from 22 critic scores.[63]
Various reviews considered it a victory lap for Lamar after his hip-hop feuds throughout 2024.[36][70][74][75] Critics who praised the album's tributes to West Coast hip-hop and Lamar's abilities to distill various elements to create a cohesive record includeExclaim!'s Wesley McLean[29] andVariety's Peter Berry.[45]Paste's Matt Mitchell upheld the album as a reimagination of rap's future and Lamar's past,[68] andNME's Kyann-Sian Williams was impressed by the warm storytelling that acted as a palate cleanser after the diss tracks and loathing that had dominated the hip-hop scene.[67] Williams contended thatGNX is an "easy contender for the rap album of 2024",[67] and Tom Breihan ofStereogum hailed it as the year's best record and Lamar's "greatest work" yet.[41]
Many critics focused on Lamar's self-depiction as a driving cultural force in hip-hop.Alexis Petridis ofThe Guardian commented thatGNX found Lamar at his most confrontational, "deferring only to God".[37] InThe Line of Best Fit, Matthew Kim described it as "a concise statement of regional pride, braggadocio, and non-conformity", creditingJack Antonoff's production for making the album feel "lush and expansive".[28]Rolling Stone's Mosi Reeves felt thatGNX provided more than sufficient explanations for why Lamar is the "GOAT of 2024" but not answers to a bigger cultural question of structural changes in hip-hop, labelling the album "yet another treatise on hip-hop corporatism".[70] Concluding the review forAllMusic, David Crone made several claims about the album, calling it, "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."[40]
In a mixed review fromPitchfork, Alphonse Pierre wrote that the album's supposed authenticity was blemished by Lamar's "heavy-handed, brand-conscious narrative", highlighting the production that is "too clean and synthetic", although his delivery remained stellar and the musical guests were memorable.[69] In congruence,Will Hodgkinson ofThe Times shared his disappointment towards Lamar's self-aggrandizement that deviated from his intellectually provocative themes on past albums, despite the "frequently exceptional" production and flow.[76] Similarly,Robert Christgau praised the production as "a musically virtuosic tour de force", but expressed disillusionment with the lyrics, which he characterised as "predictably braggadocious autobio that was barely virtuosic at all."[64]Jon Caramanica ofThe New York Times considered Lamar's tribute to his California roots somewhat a retreat to his "comfort zone", calling the album "impressive but slight".[77]
GNX earned over 44.2 million first-day streams on theglobal Spotify chart, averaging over 3.6 million streams per song despite being available only seven hours prior.[116] It also simultaneously occupied the top two slots on the American Spotify charts, with "Squabble Up" being at number one with 3.272 million streams.[117]GNX became Lamar's second number-one album on theUK Albums Chart afterTo Pimp a Butterfly (2015).[118]
In the United States,GNX debuted atop theBillboard 200 with 319,000album-equivalent units, including 379.72 million official on-demand streams and 32,000 pure sales, despite only being available via streaming and standard digital downloads. It crossed 500,000album-equivalent units by the second week.[119] It marked Lamar's fifth consecutive number-one album in the country and scored the sixth-largest opening week of 2024, among all albums. Furthermore,GNX logged the year's biggest streaming week for any hip-hop or R&B album, the second-biggest debut streaming week, and the third-largest streaming week overall, only behindTaylor Swift'sThe Tortured Poets Department.[120] All 12 songs fromGNX debuted on theBillboard Hot 100 chart, occupying the entire top five simultaneously.[121] Lamar is the fifth artist in history to monopolize the premier spots, joiningAriana Grande, Swift, Drake, andthe Beatles.[122] Following Lamar'sSuper Bowl Halftime Show performance,GNX returned to the number 1 spot on theBillboard 200 chart dated February 22, 2025.[123]
Elsewhere,GNX debuted at number one in Canada,[124] Australia,[125] and the United Kingdom.[126]
^[g]"Peekaboo" contains samples of "Does Anybody Care", written by Willie Clarke andWillie Hale, as performed byLittle Beaver, and "Blue Revery", written by Michel Legrand, as performed by Grille-Chemand.[127]
^Pre-GNX releases under this deal hold the copyright notice "Kendrick Lamar under exclusive license to Interscope Records" which means that Lamar himself owns ultimate copyrights for those recordings; however onGNX, it says "pgLang under exclusive license to Interscope Records", thus meaning the deal was renegotiated, and Lamar's own management company,PGLang, is now set as an ultimate copyright owner for all official post-"Not Like Us" releases.
^Wood, Mikael (December 11, 2024)."The 20 best albums of 2024".Los Angeles Times.Archived from the original on December 11, 2024. RetrievedDecember 11, 2024.
^Aswad, Jem; Garcia, Thania; Horowitz, Steven J.; Willman, Chris (December 13, 2024)."The Best Albums of 2024".Variety.Archived from the original on December 13, 2024. RetrievedDecember 13, 2024.
^"Czech Albums – Top 100".ČNS IFPI.Note: On the chart page, select36.Týden 2936 on the field besides the words "CZ – ALBUMS – TOP 100" to retrieve the correct chart. Retrieved December 2, 2024.
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