Kendrick Lamar’s 2022 album Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers took fans on a journey of intense personal growth. His final projects with TDE and Aftermath would have closed an important chapter for him and allowed him to step away from rap and focus on his company, pgLang. However, thanks to his relationship with Drake, Kendrick awakened his competitive spirit and expanded his focus to hip-hop and the music industry as a whole.
In a surprise track performed during the MTV VMAs, Kendrick spoke about the current state of the culture, declaring, “It’s time to see the party die.” As it turns out, the song is just a precursor to his new album, GNX, which was released without warning on Friday via pgLang/Interscope Records. The project maintains much of the aggression from his musical output this year, but balances that energy with moments of introspection and his vision for better hip-hop.
Opening banger “wacced out murals” initially loops listeners with unexpected vocals from mariachi singer Deila Barrera, but quickly segues into a sinister synthesizer, and Kendrick hears a Compton mural dedicated to him. Express your anger at being destroyed. Promising, “I’ll kill them all before they kill my joy,” he goes on to do just that.
He slammed Cole for first stirring up the Drake beef and then backtracking in the worst way possible, slammed Snoop Dogg for posting Drake’s lame AI diss track, and even criticized Cole for his upcoming Super Bowl performance. They also say boring things about people.
Kendrick criticizes Lil Wayne for not being chosen to perform in his hometown and distancing himself from certain people after complaining that Nas is the “only one” to publicly congratulate him mentioned. Directed me towards the Eskimo and drew a line and a decimal point. ”
A thinly veiled Drake reference (people from my town couldn’t entertain Oldboy) and a literal “fuck you” to hip-hop as a whole are followed by an angry Kendrick almost longed for the days he had. It was in my house. ”
