Kendrick Lamar Adresses Super Bowl Drama and Five Other Takeaways From ‘GNX’

With no warning—and because he can—Kendrick Lamar dropped his new album GNX on Friday afternoon. The record takes its name after the 1987 Buick featured on the album’s cover, the same year Kendrick was born. The rapper behind the biggest song of the year, who may be responsible for the potentially permanent demise of a particular rapper from Toronto, is as detail-oriented as ever on the record, leaving a number easter eggs for fans to dissect in the coming days. Off the bat, however, GNX is clearly a love letter to Kendrick’s native Los Angeles. The city’s distinct G-Funk infused sound is all over the album, produced by a tight circle of collaborators including Mustard, the architect of the lethal weapon of a diss track “Not Like Us,” as well as Jack Antonoff, whose crafted some of the biggest pop albums on the planet. Kendrick manages to strike a balance between both sensibilities, making songs with mainstream appeal that maintain a focus on LA’s unique sound

There’s plenty to unpack with GNX, including possible responses to commentary around the announcement of Kendrick’s Super Bowl performance, and his ongoing feud with Drake. We put together seven key takeaways from Kendrick Lamar’s surprise album GNX.

Jack Antonoff’s production

Earlier this year, Jack Antonoff and Kendrick Lamar tested out their potential as collaborators on “6:16 in LA,” the second diss track to arrive in the rapper’s feud with Drake. Antonoff was fresh off the release of Taylor Swift’s The Tortured Poets Department and a self-titled record from his own band Bleachers when he appeared as a co-producer on the track. He helmed the track alongside longtime TDE collaborator Sounwave. Now, their names appear beside each other on 11 out of the 12 tracks on GNX. Sounwave and Antonoff share production credits across the album with the likes of Mustard, M-Tech, and Lamar himself. 

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Primarily a pop producer (his other major release this year includes Sabrina Carpenter’s Short n’ Sweet), Antonoff explores new ground across GNX. “Dodger Blue” is the closest he gets to leaving the mark of his signature sound, but the song also marks a reunion. Sam Dew is credited as a songwriter on the track. In 2019, Antonoff, Soundwave, and Dew launched the collaborative music project Red Hearse. The trio released one album together, but reunited in 2022 on Taylor Swift’s Midnights single “Lavender Haze.” Sounwave and Antonoff also co-wrote and co-produced “Karma” sans Dew. 

“Me and Jack, we keep each other informed on any project we’re working on,” Spears told Rolling Stone in 2022. “We usually take at least a week out of the year just to create with no goal in mind.” And if anyone knows what Lamar is looking for, it’s Sounwave. Their creative partnership dates back more than 15 years, to the rapper’s earliest mixtape releases. “When you talk about Kendrick, you have to talk about Sounwave,” TDE president Terrence “Punch” Henderson told Rolling Stone in 2018. “Kendrick will half-state an idea in his head and Soundwave will finish the thought for him. He’s the glue to it all because even if he’s not making his own beat, he’s adding onto what Kendrick needs.” — L.P.

Kendrick Mentions Lil Wayne and The Super Bowl Controversy

Many thought Kendrick Lamar was the logical choice for the upcoming Super Bowl Halftime show. Kendrick is a chart-topping artist with a lengthy catalog. But some, such as Nicki Minaj and Birdman, felt like those bonafides are exactly why Lil Wayne should have been chosen for a hometown set at the New Orleans exhibition. Wayne expressed disappointment in not receiving the nod from his NFL-affiliated friend Jay-Z, even telling the crowd at his Lil Weezyana festival he was “robbed” of the moment. Kendrick reflected on the hysteria on “wacced out,” noting, “Used to bump Tha Carter III, I held my Rollie chain proud / Irony, I think my hard work let Lil Wayne down.” Kendrick has always been reverent of Wayne, even (drunkenly) pleading for him not to retire in 2016. But sometimes, idols become rivals.  — A.G.

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Kendrick Gets Groovy With Eclectic References

In many ways, GNX is a hodgepodge of sentiments, ideas, and sounds, especially through a pretty refreshing roster of samples and interpolations. “Squabble Up” samples Debbie Deb’s 1980s freestyle classic “When I Hear Music” and “The Heart Pt.” seems to pull from“The Heart Pt. 6” also boasts a a sweet sample of “Use Your Heart” by SWV, the girl group that reached its heights in the 1990s – and since that song samples “If It Don’t Turn You On (You Oughta Leave It Alone)” by 1970s funk collective B.T. Express, Kendrick’s does too. On “Luther,” vocals from the late R&B legend Luther Vandross take center stage, pulled from his feature on Cherl Lynn’s 1982 version of “If This World Were Mine,” a cover of a song by Marvin Gaye and Tammy Terrell.  — M.C. 

Los Angeles’ Música Mexicana Scene Makes an Appearance

GNX opens with the haunting vocals of mariachi singer Deyra Barrera, a Los Angeles-based mariachi singer, on “Wacced Out Murals.” When reached by Rolling Stone, Barrera was still in shock that her vocals made it on the album, including on Tupac tribute “Reincarnated” and album closer “Gloria.” “My skin gets goosebumps because all of this happened so quickly for me,” she said. “It’s magical. I want to cry.” Lamar has never shied away from honoring Los Angeles’ Mexican roots, including in videos for “Not Like Us” and “Family Matters,” where he posed in a mariachi sombrero. — T.M.

Kendrick and Mustard Team Up For More Magic

When Kendrick Lamar dropped “Not Like Us,” the chemistry between K Dot and Mustard, who produced the track, was powerful enough to force something of a realignment in the world order. On GNX stand-outs “Hey Now” and “TV Off” the two link up yet again and illustrate that they might very well make for a generational rapper and producer duo. Both songs highlight the pair’s synergy. Mustard’s production, with its bouncy, swinging bass offers Kendrick the perfect pocket to run wild in. “TV Off,” in particular has the feeling of a spiritual sequel to”Not Like Us,” and possibly with the same staying power. – JI 

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Kendrick Gets “Reincarnated” as Tupac tribute

Kendrick has always revered Tupac as one of his favorite artists and deepest influences. He had a “conversation” with him on 2015’s “Mortal Man,” and on GNX he decided to channel his musical presence on “Reincarnated,” a song where Kendrick figuratively explores his past lives as a guitar player and a Chit’lin circuit singer. The track is an interpolation of Tupac’s “Made Niggaz,” a Johnny J-produced single from the Gang Related soundtrack that’s one of the final songs the late rap icon intentionally recorded to release. The track feels specifically like an homage to 1996 Tupac, when he dropped the Makaveli album, a spirituality-tinged, existentialist epic that pushed thematic boundaries.

Tupac’s music from that period was defined by an anger and lust for vengeance that permeated through his delivery. His mic presence was always powerful, but in 1996, consumed by a sense of betrayal from former friends, he sounded downright vitriolic. Kendrick expertly emulates that energy from the first bars of “Reincarnated.” In the first two verses, he spookily mirrors Pac’s see-saw of low and high tones, double-time cadences, and emphasis on internal rhyme that lets him stretch out on the end rhyme (“gifted as a musician I played guitar on a grand level”). So many artists over the years have vied to channel their interpretation of Pac’s legacy in back-against-the-wall beef moments, but Kendrick decided to embody him by just being a hell of a rapper. So much for “Tupac wasn’t a lyricist.” — A.G.