Halfway by way of his snarling Drake diss, “Not Like Us,” Kendrick Lamar issued a succinct, however forceful private mandate: “Typically you gotta come out and present n—as.” It was each a plan of motion and a self-fulfilling mandate. 

Since then, he’s gained that rap beef in probably the most unequivocal phrases conceivable: “Not Like Us” has been nominated for a number of Grammys, a uncommon diss monitor to realize that standing (satirically the final was Drake’s Meek Mill swipe “Again to Again”), the height of a six-song flurry, starting together with his visitor verse of Future and Metro Boomin’s “Like That,” that obtained only one response earlier than its goal conceded with silence. Months after his historic, L.A.-boosting “Pop Out” live performance on Juneteenth, he was chosen to carry out at halftime for Tremendous Bowl LIX. After “Mr. Morale and the Large Steppers,” Lamar’s sturdy but difficult sixth studio album, it was a re-coronation for the most effective rapper on the planet — a flawless album rollout, however with out an album. Key phrase: Was. On Friday, Okay.Dot took a break from intermittent Finsta posts to drop “GNX,” a shock LP that instantly eclipsed each rap launch this yr. Combining vicious sincerity, kaleidoscopic California sounds, and the athleticism of a decathlete, “GNX” is Kendrick Lamar at his most compelling — a mosaic that indisputably reaffirms his standing as probably the most dynamic spitter the world has to supply. 

Layered in Cali ancestry, GNX stands as a self-contained museum for the West Coast diaspora of sound, with producers like Sounwave, Mustard and Jack Antonoff others supplying the canvases. There are additionally interludes of mariachi (“Gloria”) and hyphy (“Hey Now”). In case you’re trying to find G-Funk, you’ll find its foundational DNA on “Dodger Blue,” which seems like a cousin of “Laptop Love”; think about Caine pulling up on Ilena in “Menace II Society.” It goes past the soundscapes, too. You’ll find a Drakeo the Ruler-inspired stream right here (“Peakaboo”), and a Roddy Ricch function there (“Dodger Blue”) — other than two SZA spotlights, all the different options are from relative newcomers. Someplace in between, there are verses from L.A.’s sprawling underground (“TV Off”). In every single place, there’s Lamar’s deeply coded genius. 

At 44 minutes, GNX is without delay numerous, homogeneous, expansive, and concise — humorous and lethal severe. The latter half surfaces on the intro “Wacced Out Murals,” whereby Lamar unloads flurries of righteous indignation at each Snoop Dogg, Lil Wayne, and, seemingly, a sure Toronto rapper who allegedly paid for illicit Kendrick info. It’s a searing and vengeful opener that soars due to each Lamar’s vocal efficiency and a monitor that appears like a dystopian jail lockdown. 

At instances, the manufacturing is as creative because the lyrics. For “Peekaboo,” Sounwave re-engineers a Little Beaver pattern right into a sinister 405 joyride. Embedded with sturdy options from fellow Cali native AzChike, it performs out with all of the nocturnal bounce of a “Paramedic, Half 2” with an much more indelible hook, which itself is strengthened by continuous callbacks that flip each bar right into a micro-chorus. Right here, Lamar additionally serves up one other reminder of his technical rap acumen — his kinetic couplets back-handspring off the beat. His phrases are layered in eccentric wit and convincing menace: “Peekaboo, I simply put them boogers in my chain/ Peekaboo, eighty-pointers like a Kobe recreation/ Peekaboo, 7.62s’ll make ’em plank/ Peekaboo, poppin’ out, you higher not smut my identify.” 

Infectious as it’s, “Peekaboo” isn’t even the catchiest tune right here — that one goes to “Squabble Up.” For the monitor, Kendrick leaping jacks over a monitor that turns a Debbie Deb traditional right into a sprightly hyphy anthem. Kendrick’s fluttering syllables and a jittery bassline bounce like a slinky’s recoil. The chorus, a nod to Cali road skirmishes, is straightforward, but emphatic — an simply repeatable hook that would ship the monitor to No. 1 on the Billboard Scorching 100. It’s threaded by Lamar’s instincts as a performer — one other key phrase. 

A violent swirl of cadences and feelings, Kendrick can flip onomatopeias and outstretched syllables into the most effective sorts of phonetic adventures. Keep in mind him shouting, “Wop! Wop! Wop! Wop! Wop! Dot, fuck ‘em up” on “Not Like Us”? It’s an interactive contact that encourages listeners to repeat the bars — and so they do. He repeats the method all throughout GNX. Inside hours of its launch, “TV Off” grew to become a trending matter as followers have been repurposing Kendrick’s manic, “Mustard” shoutout into an inescapable collage of memes. In fact, that half wouldn’t have hit prefer it did if the track weren’t unbelievable. His supply, as a Mustard beat that seems like a futuristic L.A. drumline, powers a twitchy refrain that can, undoubtedly, be shouted on dancefloors in all places. It’s laborious to image the identical artist topping “Not Like Us” in the identical yr, however “TV Off” and “Squabble Up” make it just a little simpler to increase your creativeness. It’s clearly straightforward for Kendrick to increase his. 

And it’s all completely distinct — even when his songs could be remixes of earlier ideas. The thought of getting a dialog with God in your track isn’t a brand new one; reimagining key historic Black figures as your self isn’t both. However, doing each on the similar time might be a brand new one — not to mention whereas mimicking a Tupac Shakur traditional with flawless cadence. For that one, he spits over a pattern of “Made N—az,” including extra sentimental string preparations that add a layer of sentimentality to a story of sin and redemption — a biblical rendering of a traditional battle between good and evil. 

Because the album winds to a detailed, “Coronary heart Pt. 6” is a reminisce about his early profession together with his former label, High Dawg Leisure, that explains their amicable separation so Lamar may “evolve [and] place my skillset as a Black exec.” It ends with an ethical: “To all my younger n—as, let me be the demonstration/ The right way to conduct variations with a wholesome dialog… Choose up the cellphone and bust it up earlier than the historical past is misplaced/ Hand-to-handshake is sweet when you may have a heart-to-heart.”

He’s a bit much less profitable on the “I Gave You Energy”-esque “Gloria”; saying a track’s central metaphor on the literal monitor in 2024 is rather less forgivable than when Nas did it in 1996. And but, the refrain and Kendrick’s conviction principally promote it anyway, even when the LP may have closed on a extra climactic crescendo. 

GNX is, greater than anybody attribute, a testomony to Okay.Dot’s potential to distill grand concepts by way of the lens of his personal influences. Combined in a cauldron of sounds and sensations, these ideas soften into visceral songs for the ages: It’s all so meticulous and so regional, but primal sufficient to strike one thing common. Within the forgettable parade of on a regular basis releases, it’s straightforward to neglect that albums like this one are doable. However but once more, Kendrick Lamar popped out and proved it.