I feel like I’m levitating.
I hear love, grief, joy, perseverance, and triumph. I feel as if an angel has graced my ears with their voice.
I have never truly been able to describe the feeling that courses through me when I experience Kendrick Lamar’s art for the first time, but that feeling is certainly one I am fond of.
Kendrick has achieved social spotlight after he engaged in a record breaking and decisive victory over the former rapper known as Drake through the summer of 2024.
On November 22, Kendrick graced the global community with his latest album, GNX.
The 12-song, 44-minute album can likely be classified as a religious experience, and its scope ranges far beyond the shallowness of a victory lap.
GNX doesn’t wait to get you energized though, launching the collage with two undoubtable trunk rattlers in ‘wacced out murals’ and ‘squabble up’ which got me ready to put up legendary numbers in a sport I never played.
Switching gears, we reach the first of two SZA features on the album with the song ‘luther’, an adorable love song that stands out even further through its contrast with the previous two tracks, serving as an example of the two’s musical chemistry.
In the fourth track of the album, ‘man at the garden,’ Kendrick reflects on his career and his goals, the title’s a metaphor for the Garden of Eden in the bible, and Kendrick is placing himself as Adam, a man in heaven who has everything, and yet still thinks he ‘deserves it all’. ‘It all’ includes the forbidden fruit, which is an analogy for the title Kendrick so desperately desires, ‘the greatest of all time’. Kendrick sees himself reaching for this title as greed, and this adds a double meaning to ‘I deserve it all’, being that he feels he deserves the struggles in his life since he fell into greed, still believing he had done enough to earn the title, but doubts if he can ask any more from God, who has already given him so much.
After the heavily religious and introspective track, we reach another heavily braggadocios track in ‘hey now,’ featuring one of many underground West Coast rappers on the album, Dody6. Kendrick also mentions seeing “spaceships on Rosecrans”, a supposed analogy for people not with the culture coming to Compton to see him “do my dance”, an analogy for rap, or the culture.
At the halfway point of the track, Kendrick gives us ‘reincarnated’ starting with a nod to 2Pac, sampling one of his tracks for the beat. The song gives us a seat at the table of a conversation between Kendrick and his ‘father’, an analogy for God, about how Kendrick can be forgiven after falling out of heaven, comparing himself to the devil.
In the following groovy tracks ‘tv off’, ‘dodger blue’, ‘peekaboo’ and ‘gnx’, Kendrick features multiple LA and California rappers to support the bright future of the west coast culture, with the former giving tribute to his main producer, DJ Mustard, who produced ‘Not Like Us’ among other tracks, and gives another victorious beat there too.
In one of my favorite tracks on the album ‘heart pt. 6’ Kendrick tells the story of meeting a few of his metaphorical family members in Dr.Dre, Top Dawg, and Ab-Soul, all of which helped him get to where he is now. The story wraps up with Kendrick telling the listener to ‘handle your family as such and have a heart to heart’, ‘before the history is lost’.
In the final track, my personal favorite, ‘gloria’ Kendrick sings another beautiful love song with SZA, in this case though, the song is not addressed to a person, but to his ‘pen’ which can be extrapolated to his love for the culture, his music, and lyricism.
This album has been more than a treat, from the loud, boasting tracks to the humble, introspective ones, but I have a feeling there is another around the corner to keep our eyes out for, because every ‘heart pt.__’ song has been a preview for a major album.