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Nas salutes Kendrick Lamar for not letting the party die on ‘GNX’Nas says that K. Dot is “keeping the essence of this s**t alive and at the forefront” following the release of his new project ‘GNX.’11.23.2024Kendrick Lamar said that he wanted to “watch the party die,” but the release of GNX and the flood of reactions that have followed are proof that nothing of the sort is happening. Instead, the vested interests in what he will put on wax next have launched K. Dot back to the forefront of rap discourses.According to Nas, his West Coast contemporary is making all of the right moves. On Saturday (Nov. 23), just 24 hours since the new LP dropped, he gave the “Not Like Us” hitmaker praise for what he is doing for Hip Hop. “Always inspired by my brother KL. Keeping the essence of this s**t alive and at the forefront. Salute King!” he wrote in an Instagram post. In the comments, a follower shared that “Everybody wants to hate on Kendrick Lamar, but he’s actually one of the greatest rappers of all time, and this album was definitely a classic.”Lamar’s supporters have been praising the creative array of lyricism and witty vengeance displayed across the project's 12 tracks. Among them that has generated a host of hot takes is “wacced out murals,” where Lamar name-dropped Snoop Dogg, Nas and Lil Wayne.Compton’s own rapped, “Used to bump Tha Carter III, I held my Rollie chain proud/ Irony, I think my hard work let Lil Wayne down/ Whatever, though, call me crazy, everybody questionable/ Turn me to an Eskimo, I drew the line and decimals/ Snoop posted ‘Taylor Made,’ I prayed it was the edibles/ I couldn’t believe it, it was only right for me to let it go/ Won the Super Bowl and Nas the only one congratulate me/ All these n**gas agitated, I'm just glad they showin' they faces/ Quite frankly, plenty artist, but they outdated.”On Friday (Nov. 22), Snoop reshared a clip of him declaring the “Poetic Justice” emcee the new king of the West Coast, as well as a tweet joking that it was in fact the edibles that inspired him to post Drake’s diss record “Taylor Made,” that was aimed at Lamar this summer. The two men traded jabs in a series of tracks that were celebrated by Hip Hop veterans and fans who experienced the ‘90s era of rap beefs.Lil Wayne also addressed the fanfare of Lamar addressing the reactions to him being tapped to headline the 2025 Super Bowl halftime show — a gig that many hoped Wayne would get since the game is hosted in New Orleans. Tunechi warned, “Let’s not take kindness for weakness. Let this giant sleep. I beg [you] all. No one really wants destruction, not even me, but I shall destroy if disturbed.”
5 Takeaways From Kendrick Lamar’s Surprise New Album GNXThe new project is heavy on the club slappers and production from… Jack Antonoff?November 22, 2024In 2024, Kendrick Lamar became the master of the anti-rollout: Since the start of the year, he’s turned 12 words’ worth of X posts and a couple of tracks accompanied by still images to Instagram into an era-defining rap beef, a number-one single, and a booking to perform at the Super Bowl LIX halftime show, in New Orleans. Between his guest appearance on Future and Metro Boomin’s “Like That” and his chart-topping victory lap “Not Like Us,” Kendrick seized the country’s attention by lobbing diss after diss at its most commercially dominant rap star, not quite deposing Drake, but certainly leaving a permanent stain on his image, accusing him of sex trafficking, pedophilia, and cultural colonization.The beef simmered, after Drake’s half-hearted and occasionally confusing response “The Heart Part 6,” as Kendrick made his moves strategically, showing out for his Pop Out concert, “Not Like Us” video, and Super Bowl announcement. This morning, however, Kendrick uploaded a cryptic, minutelong snippet titled “GNX” to YouTube, and, even more unexpectedly, dropped his entire sixth studio album just before noon. The new LP is more accessible than 2022’s complicated Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers, harkening back to the pop of 2017’s DAMN. and dabbling in bouncy West Coast club slappers and slick synth-pop across a relatively tidy 45-minute experience. Further exploring the nervy, Drakeo the Ruler-inspired flow that made the punchlines on “Not Like Us” so memorable, he’s also brought a new generation of SoCal upstarts along for the ride, tapping local emcees like AzChike, Peysoh, and YoungThreat for collaborations. Here are five takeaways that stood out while spinning GNX the first few times.More Stocks in StockAfter ushering in summer 2024 with an all-out offensive against the OVO camp, Kendrick spares Drake the ire (or satisfaction) of another name-drop on GNX, but that doesn’t mean he’s taken a pacifist turn. With opener “Wacced Out Murals,” he comes out swinging, taking quick shots at those who’ve aligned with the opposing side. Spitting venom over sirens and staccato strings, Kendrick puts his former heroes in the crosshairs, reflecting on the disappointment Lil Wayne expressed when Kendrick was selected to play the Super Bowl halftime show in Weezy’s hometown, and calling out Snoop Dogg for posting Drake’s AI-assisted “Taylor Made” diss to Instagram upon release. GNX may not be a major mobilization in the war between Aubrey’s Angels and TDE’s disciples, but there’s just enough pot-stirring to fuel discourse through Thanksgiving.Getting HyphyDespite the single’s litany of quotable punchlines, it was arguably Mustard’s production on “Not Like Us,” which arranged a stuttering Monk Higgins sample over railgun kick drums, that kept audiences hitting replay well beyond its release date. His work set the tone for the menacing hyphy sound that dominates much of GNX. Mustard was enlisted to produce two tracks on the record, “Hey Now” and “TV Off,” and the club-ready cuts “Squabble Up” and “Peekaboo” were clearly produced with “Not Like Us” in mind. (“Squabble Up,” of course was already previewed in the “Not Like Us” video.) There’s still plenty of room for quiet contemplation on GNX, but there’s no shortage of party playlist fodder either.Antonoff on the BeatFans may have been surprised to find out that Jack Antonoff was listed as a co-producer of Kendrick’s “6:16 in LA” diss in May, but the credit makes much more sense now. Along with Top Dawg Entertainment’s in-house producer Sounwave, the pop super-producer worked on almost all of GNX’s tracks, likely contributing to the album’s lush timbres, orchestral flourishes and synth-heavy nostalgia fuel. Kendrick’s rumored Taylor Swift collaboration may not have materialized on GNX, but her right-hand man’s fingerprints are all over the new release.Heart Pt. 6 (Kendrick’s Version)With “Heart Pt. 6,” Kendrick continues the long-running biographical series that he’s been updating since 2010, ignoring Drake’s own, unauthorized entry of the same title, which served as a de facto white flag ending the spring’s diss war. This time around, Kendrick details his split with TDE to form his own creative communications company, pgLang. Former labelmates Ab-Soul, Jay Rock, and Schoolboy Q appear as characters in Kendrick’s recollections of early recording sessions, which he says taught him the skills he needed to forge his own path: “I guess my motivation was the yearnin’ for independence,” he raps. “Now it’s about Kendrick, I wanna evolve, place my skillset as a Black exec.”A Few Vicious Bars “I put a square on his back like I’m Jack Dorsey” (“Hey Now”) “How many heads I gotta take to level my aesthetics?/Hurry up and get your muscle up, we out the plyometric” (“TV Off”) “Fuck a double entendre, I want y'all to feel this shit/Old soul, bitch, I probably built them pyramids” (“Wacced Out Murals”) “How annoying, does it angers me to know the lames can speak/On the origins of the game I breathe? That’s insane to me” (“Man at the Garden”)
People still complaining for Em's voice in Relapse, but when it comes to Kendrick's goofy voice in his last albums it's all ok. They say this is album of the year. Just because he comes from the west!
You have to assume this album was done for a while already. To drop it the same day as Cube. Did Kendrick not appreciate Cube’s lil I was Kendrick before Kendrick line?As for the album it’s incredible.Who was the guitarist Kendrick was talking about on verse 1 of reincarnated? Verse 2 seems to be about Billie Holiday.
squabble up video
This reminds me of gkmc and Xzibit- napalm dropping on the same day.
I dont know. Was bumping yesterday a lot, today finde out it is boring, exepct squabble up. I got problem with this new music, nothing is a long distance lisiting. Same with eminems new shit. Plays a lot when its droped, right now not at all. Same with snoops a dres shit.
Is that a product of today's music, or just that people these days have short attention spans and have unlimited access to an unlimited supply of music at their fingertips? I remember in the mid 90's, you'd buy a CD, and that's all you had to listen to for months until something else came out, so you forced yourself to listen and like songs. There were so many songs i wasn't a huge fan of upon first few listens, but they grew on me over time. People these days aren't giving music a chance anymore. If it doesn't hit you after a couple listens, it's thrown in the recycle bin never to be listened to again.
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