With his surprisingly dropped “GNX,” Kendrick Lamar roars from zero to 60 faster than a turbocharged ’87 Buick, faster than you can yell “Mustard.” And you can decode the Bible’s centerpiece “reincarnation” much faster than that.
Maintaining the same energy of his historic Pop Out concert five months ago, Lamar is surrounded by emerging Los Angeles artists – from EzChic to Payoh – and the new West Coast shaped by his longtime producer Sounwave with Jack Raps on soundscape. Antonoff and a garage full of other beat mechanics. He is once again “under the spell”, spreading references to 2Pac, Biggie and Nas and maintaining hatred towards me throughout the world, including from a certain Canadian as far as: “I “Just strangled a goat” and “Just now is plural.”
Lil Wayne, Snoop Dogg, Andrew Schultz and even Fox’s Super Bowl broadcast can’t escape K-DOT’s chaotic crosshairs. Here’s hoping that the chorus of “Turn off the TV” during their New Orleans halftime show in February – an urgent call to “turn off this TV” repeated eight times – will confuse the public.
This Lamar is leaning toward the same creativity-fueled pride, self-righteous anger and supreme confidence that fueled the Grammy-nominated “Not Like Us” and won his Drake controversy: “I kill them all, with this Before I let them kill my happiness.” And yet, as was the case with their first hit “Swimming Pools”, even the most club-ready braggadocio songs – and there are plenty of them, including the massive “Squabble Up” and synth-stabbed Mustard production “Hey Now” has been slapped on a cautionary sticker. Introspection is inherent in Lamar’s art. In “Man at the Garden”, he surveys his state and pride. and declares that “I deserve it all,” “Dangerously / Nothing’s changed with me / There’s still pain in me.”
At 37, Lamar is in peak form and stands alone in the rap world as a star who connects generations without chasing trends. He generates his own gravity in the hip-hop universe. Drawing samples from the early ’80s – Debbie Deb, Luther Vandross, Whodini – he’s able to change tempo and lyrical approach mid-song without losing the listener.
The album, “Gloria,” one of two tracks featuring former TDE labelmate SZA, is a rousing celebration of the pain and power of writing. Along the lines of Common’s “I Used to Love Her” or Nas’ “I Give You Power”, Lamar’s love story details a “complicated relationship” that listeners may first think is his longtime partner. About Whitney Alford, but it happens. Dedicated to his pen.
While carefully structured, “GNX” sounds a bit more defiant than Lamar’s traditionally concept-heavy studio albums. And there are signs that this collection of 12 songs is more than a “Part 1” or some more formal mixtape-type prologue: The brief music video announcing the album featured a snippet of a song that also appears on “GNX”. does not appear. ,
Whatever happens next, the Pulitzer Prize winner has written another exciting chapter in hip-hop’s most fascinating long story: an ambitious and immensely talented poet from Compton working his way through his — and the world’s — contradictions on the biggest stage. Is, forever uneasy with his crown. ,
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