New music Friday kicks off with a surprise new album from Kendrick Lamar. The Compton rapper drops the 12-track project GNX, an ode to his favorite Buick.
Kendrick Lamar Dedicates GNX Album to His Beloved Classic Car
On Friday (Nov. 22), Kendrick Lamar unleashed a dozen new songs on his GNX album. This is his first full-length release since 2022’s Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers. GNX arrives eight months after Kendrick’s epic rap battle with Drake, which hit a fever pitch back in spring.
Before word got around the internet on Friday afternoon that K-Dot dropped a new LP, he released the song titled “GNX” along with an accompanying video. The track finds Kenny kicking rhymes over a soaring beat straight out of an orchestra. “Only thing better right now is living right now when I can’t spare no feelings/Quiet on set but my aura loud, I never get through hood sh*t and wisdom,” he raps. The album itself features a song of the same name, but doesn’t sound the same with an entirely different beat and subject matter.
GNX is an homage to Kendrick’s classic Buick GNX. This past March, the West Coast MC made a cryptic post on his Finsta account about his beloved car. In a moment of confusion, Kendrick said “the best thing you can do is find a gnx.”
“Aye life get real tricky,” Kendrick wrote in the caption. “No matter where you at with it. i never pick and choose what stories to relate to. all of them is relative. like my momma say tho. different strokes for different folks. a good ol saying can snap you back into reality sometimes. but in the moment of confusion, the best thing you can do is find a gnx. make you realize the only thing that matters in life is that original paper work. that TL2 code. 1 of 547. yea i finally changed. its over with. dhz. my big cousin pat dogg smiling down. anybody wanna line it up. i’ll pull heem off the floor and flip yo s**t.”
The album includes plenty of standout moments from addressing the Lil Wayne Super Bowl halftime show controversy on the opener “Wacced Out Morals” to flipping Tupac Shakur’s “Made Ni**az” on “Reincarnated.” Features from singer SZA and West Coast rapper Dody6 also appear on the effort.
GNX arrives three months before Kendrick will bring his big steppin’ to the 2025 Super Bowl halftime show in New Orleans in February. That’s the same month he’ll likely attend the Grammys since he’s nominated for seven awards, including “Not Like Us,” which is up for five nods.
Read More: Kendrick Lamar Earns Seven 2025 Grammy Award Nominations, Five for ‘Not Like Us’
Check out Kendrick Lamar’s GNX album below.