Score: 4/5
Kendrick Lamar’s surprise full-length release, GNX, shows the illustrious Compton MC capitalizing on the sagacious bellicosity generated by his decisive victory in the diss-track-mediated pop-culture-spectacle feud he had with Drake over the summer in fun and masterful West Coast hip hop fashion.
When 17-time Grammy-award-winning rapper Kendrick Lamar went quiet for half a decade after the mainstream-concessionary DAMN in 2017, there was fear from the hip-hop community that perhaps the Compton native — who had by that time entered (more like shoved into) the GOAT conversation for not only rap in the 2010s but the whole genre’s history — had lost his edge, or at least was no longer hungry in that up-and-coming-young-rapper-looking-to-prove-themselves kind of way anymore. This would have been an acceptable career arch. Lamar’s reputation as a rap legend was cemented by 2017 as a result of his back-to-back releases of Good Kid M.A.A.D. City (2012) and To Pimp a Butterfly (2015), both records that operate at the highest quality of lyrical content and conceptual execution, with Lamar’s trademark socially apt dramaturgical exploration of contemporary America from the elevated and introspective experience of an inner-city Black man. Not to mention the instrumentals on both records are stellar, with both featuring some of the most iconic West Coast jams since the likes of Tupac, Snoop Dogg, N.W.A and Dr. Dre.
But the 2020s so far have shown Lamar’s career following a — albeit less severe —Nas-like trajectory, with a second wind of amazing projects coming this decade after a worrisome lag proving there’s still gold dripping from the artist’s head and then pen.
2022’s Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers saw Lamar back in top form and at his most personal, with tracks intricately meditating on family dynamics (“Father Time”) and generational trauma (“Mother I Sober”). Moreover, despite the more personal angle, the rapper kept a finger on the pulse of the COVID-age social zeitgeist as seen on the outstanding hype track “N95.”
Mr. Morale was a clear cut above DAMN and proved Kendrick could still go deep, and it was this return to form that arguably gave him the footing to triumph easily in his battle with Drake over the past summer. But Lamar’s victory over the Canadian rapper wasn’t just the result of quality but quantity as well, with three wildly different but equally devastating diss tracks lobbed Drizzy’s way in a matter of a few weeks: the slow-searing war horns of “euphoria,” the truly villainous and unhinged “Meet the Grahams,” and finally — what amounted to the superlative end and winner to the drama — the irresistible DJ Mustard produced “Not Like Us,” which monopolized automobile aux cords and sporting event speakers for quite a few months after its May release.
What’s clear about GNX is that it’s clearly the progeny of the beef, Kendrick’s voice defaulting often on the record to the same toned-down husky snarl that he debuted on “Not Like Us.” The subtext of this new vocal inflection — Kendrick being famous at this point for the eclectic arsenal of voices he can conjure up for the specific mise-en-scène of a track’s subject matter — is something like I am the tried-and-tested King of this artform now. Fair.
And this new menacing vocal inflection can be heard in its most refined form on the cinematic opening track of the record, “wacced out murals,” which also reads as a kind of oblique manifesto bridging the events of the summer into why the MC has just laid a sixth LP on listener’s laps on a random Friday morning with no promo or announcement whatsoever: “This is not for lyricists, I swear it’s not the sentiments / F**k a double entendre, I want y’all to feel this sh*t,” he proclaims at around the midway point of the reserved salvo of an opening track with its almost “Remember the Name”-esque simple cinematic pump-up production, which, despite that reference, I promise is actually epic (and not like by the standards of a 12-year-old boy).
“murals” states in clear English that Kendrick has no interest in reinventing the heady, meditative GKMC/TPAB wheel, instead wanting to continue the wave of volatile and infectious West Coast sound that everyone loved with “Not Like Us,” with some introspection on the margins (“reincarnated”) which have the added benefit of rounding out the sheer hardness of this record.
Kendrick immediately lightens the mood from the dramatic opening with the second track “squabble up” which was teased four months ago in the opening sequence of the “Not Like Us” music video. The track is a time-bender that Frankensteins ‘90s G-funk with ‘80s pop conventions — compressed drums, warbly synthesizers undergirding the mix and a roughly recorded freestyle-sounding vocal sample to boot — with contemporary layering and production cleanliness. It’s proof that even on a flex record, Kendrick can’t resist being cutting-edge.
Kendrick does however invoke an earlier version of himself with the narrative-dense “heart pt. 6,” which is an ode to his former label Top Dawg Entertainment and the creative talent that surrounded him there, helping him achieve the superstar status he now enjoys. However, while thematically this is the black sheep of the track list, this cut fits nicely at the end of it, making the song a sentimental chaser that complements all the immediate catchiness that precedes it.
Another incredibly fun thing about this record that adds to its unmatched replay-value in his discography is Kendrick’s knack for odd yet tasteful vocal sounds, which he turns up to a 10 on this project. This ranges from his odd way of pronouncing a word, or multiple words, to straight up blabber; and there are examples of both ends of the spectrum and everything in between sprinkled throughout GNX’s track list.
Standouts in the odd-vocal-inflections department on this project include: the hook of “squabble up” wherein Lamar wobbles his voice like the weird return-to-normal correction in tone that a pubescent teen boy’s voice crack induces when sounding the B rhymes of the chorus (“face” to “Fa-eh-eh-ays,” “taste” to Ta-eh-eh-aste,” and so on); the almost satirical exaggeration of an exasperated breath between lines that sounds like a DJ-scratch turned desperate inhale at the 1:10-minute mark on “tv off,” which is the veritable cousin track of “Not Like Us” (this track also features the now iconic “MUSTAAAAAAARD” producer tag at the mid-way beat switch which is yet another vocal gem from Lamar on this project); the comedically lackadaisical refrain at the 1:26-minute mark of “peekaboo” consisting of “heys” that are so claustrophobically enunciated that only the last in the series is fully pronounced; and finally the stuttering glossolalia that kicks off the beginning of easily the most off-kilter beat Kendrick has ever rhymed on with “gnx.”
All the contrived, awkward vocal inflections across GNX have a kind of Joycean quality to them as Lamar shows he’s at a point of mastery of his craft such that he can resonantly communicate the enjoyability of the very materiality of language in rap form without the need for any univocal semantic meaning to be explicit. This is something only other select deconstructive masters of the genre can do at the same level; MC Ride, Andre 3000 and MF DOOM all come to mind in this respect.
On the production end of the record, every single cut is well- to excellently produced with a clear West Coast sound permeating the beats across its 44-minute runtime. Standouts include the drippy, nocturnal instrumental of “hey now,” which has the dark L.A.-groovy menace of a Vince Staples track but with the addition of an OutKast-inspired sci-fi grandiosity which reaches a climax in the bridge turning the track from great to genius. Additionally, the triumphant ratchet instrumental supplied by Mustard on “tv off” is easily one of the catchiest rap cuts of the decade. Some of the slower tracks, like the two that SZA features on (“gloria,” “luther”) are great tracks when listened to in the context of the album but as standalone tracks don’t have the same kind of replay-button attraction that the more straight-up bouncy or hard-hitting tracks have.
Now, while the emotional and slower cuts on Mr. Morale are better overall than on GNX, this is more feature than bug as GNX is concertedly surface level (for a Kendrick record) and it’s that awareness of its identity as a kind of geographical flex and straight-up rap record — not unlike Denzel Curry’s Miama-Dade love letter of a record ZUU from 2019, where prideful hailing-from vibes over deep substance was the main message — that makes this record’s lack of conceptual depth a strength.
In many ways, GNX is what DAMN failed to be. Even in 2017, Kendrick didn’t need to do another highly cerebral, politico-cultural-spiritual record with daring production choices like TPAB. But compromising on a sound that, while still good, was not too different from what was percolating in the mainstream at the time (“GOD,” “HUMBLE”) was not the play as is proof by how little that record as a whole is discussed today.
The tracks that comprise GNX may not be super deep substantively like listeners are used to from Kendrick, but that doesn’t mean he’s eased the foot on the gas in terms of the passion and level of performative and artistic execution he can deploy when he feels a genetic connection to the music he’s creating. What Kendrick lacks in introspective substance and onion-like layers of metaphoric excellence is made up for on this project in captivating charm, unrelenting passion and an unadulterated pride in being cemented as canonic to West Coast hip hop. While this record may not be a masterpiece like some of Kendrick’s earlier work, it is a clear product of a master at work.
Altogether GNX is a piquant submission from Lamar that he can produce the highest degree of quality within the parameters of the genre’s most popular sounds, from the old-school boom-bap and G-funk era to this century’s mumble-rap and alternative R&B craze — and he does it better than most and as good as the absolute best even on a record that’s not aiming to be groundbreaking. In other words: Kendrick, double-entendre or not, we’re definitely feeling this sh*t.