Kendrick Lamar drops surprise album ahead of Super Bowl 2025 performance

The year of Kendrick continues as the rapper has abruptly dropped his latest album, ‘GNX.’

2024 has been a banner year for legendary west coast rapper Kendrick Lamar. In late April, he emerged from an extended absence to topple Drake in perhaps the highest-profile rap beef in decades, and in September booked his victory-lap performance at next year’s Super Bowl LIX in New Orleans. This past week, Kendrick has kept his momentum rolling and added more fuel to the rap twitter fire with the surprise release of his new album, ‘GNX.’

In lieu of a traditional album roll-out, a teaser video posted on social video gave about ten minutes of warning before ‘GNX’ was dropped on Friday. The 12-song album features ten artists, including two credits for fellow Top Dawg Entertainment rapper SZA. Kendrick graces the cover in black and white alongside a jet black 1987 Buick Grand National GNX, the namesake for the album.

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A post shared by Kendrick Lamar (@kendricklamar)

Although none of the diss tracks from the beef with Drake are included on the album, a few remnants can be found. In the first track, “wacced out murals,” Kendrick laments Snoop Dogg posting one of Drake’s diss tracks, “Taylor Made,” on social media, and the title of “heart pt. 6” acts as a tongue-in-cheek reference to another of Drake’s diss tracks by the same name. The beat to the first half of “tv off” also sounds conspicuously like a b-side to Kendrick’s iconic song-of-the-summer diss track, “Not Like Us.”

While hater-of-the-year Kendrick from the beef is certainly present at times, ‘DMX’ also brings the return of the all-time artist and lyricist that fans haven’t seen in earnest since 2022’s ‘Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers.’ Smooth ballads are intermixed with west coast bops, making for a deserving and singular addition to the discography. With less than three months until his Super Bowl LIX halftime performance, this album is a surprise soundtrack to get fans across the finish line.

Featured Image: Instagram / Kendrick Lamar

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Gus Johnson

Born and raised in Portland, Oregon, I’ve always had a passion for writing and was introduced to the EDM scene in 2017. Since then, I’ve attended countless shows and several major festivals including Tomorrowland, EDC Las Vegas, Decadence CO, Hard Summer, and Shambhala. Some of my favorite artists are Seven Lions, Zeds Dead, NGHTMRE, Trivecta, and Jason Ross.

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