Grammys 2026: Kendrick Lamar Proves that What Survives Becomes Sovereign on 'GNX': Album Review
- Abby Anderson
- 3 days ago
- 3 min read
Stand-out tracks: "reincarnated" "gnx (feat. hitta j3, youngthreat, peysoh)" "gloria (with sza)"
Our favorites: "squabble up" "luther (feat. sza)" "heart pt. 6"
Release date: November 22, 2024
Label: Interscope Records
For fans of: SZA, Childish Gambino, Frank Ocean
Grammys Album of the Year prediction: Top 3 Contender
Kendrick Lamar takes a victory lap on GNX, but not one that's traditionally celebratory. While it feels gold-flecked and deliberately dominant, this isn’t champagne sprayed over a finish line, it’s a controlled burn through the wreckage of everything he’s already conquered. GNX is impeccably executed and razor sharp, and for an artist whose career has always been anchored by substance, this album feels like something new. GNX is a flex rooted not in excess, but in certainty. Kendrick isn’t asking to be crowned, he’s reminding the world why the throne has always been his.
That transformation is immediate. “wacced out murals” opens the album with Lamar standing tall amid the noise of praise and vitriol alike. “The love and hate is definite without a cure / All this talk is bitch-made, that’s on my Lord / I’ll kill ’em all before I let ’em kill my joy” he claims, his survival instincts sharpened into scripture. Every version of scrutiny isn't enough to dull Kendrick.
After igniting a cultural gold streak with 2024’s “Not Like Us,” GNX often feels like its aftershock. Several tracks read as sequels, reverberations of that moment when Kendrick seized the conversation and refused to let go. “squabble up” borrows the skeletal pulse of that beat pattern, pairing it with punchy, almost taunting one-liners that strike while the iron is hot. “hey now” (feat. dody6) pushes that energy further, Lamar tightening his grip on the upper hand with surgical precision. “I’m way too important to ever let you slide on me again,” he declares with finality.
Yet GNX isn’t content to live purely in aggression. “luther” arrives as a deceptive exhale, its surface-level calm masking emotional complexity beneath. With SZA’s voice softening the edges, the track becomes a meditation on grief, heartache, and lingering spite. Their vocals intertwine with aching familiarity, distilling hope into something simple and human: “Better days comin’ for sure / I know you’re comin’.”
On “man at the garden,” Kendrick ascends fully into myth. Repeating “I deserve it all” like a mantra, he sits atop his throne not out of arrogance, but justification. Every sacrifice, every risk, every reinvention is laid bare as evidence. This stardom feels harder, more untouchable than the Kendrick of DAMN. or To Pimp a Butterfly.
That internal tension resurfaces on “reincarnated,” where Kendrick turns inward, confronting the ghost of who he once was. Leaning into melodic rap, he honors the roots that carried him here while wrestling with the weight of what he’s become. There’s conflict but also satisfaction in the proof that defying the odds doesn’t erase the past, but rather sanctifies it.
Blending hip-hop and R&B, the Kendrick of “heart pt. 6” lets the music reclaim him, loosening the grip of feud and external warfare, allowing himself a moment of emotional release. But even in reflection, he never stands alone. On “gnx (feat. hitta j3, youngthreat, peysoh)," Lamar brings his circle into focus, with his entourage reflecting on him like a street-level benediction: “Tell ’em Kendrick did it.”
The album closes with “gloria” (with SZA), a track as concise and transcendent as GNX itself, sharp yet luminous. Throughout GNX, Kendrick Lamar is framed as something almost saintlike. Battle-tested, canonized by survival rather than myth, and with his final breath, he seals the vision: “I see you, you see me / Both see what we want.” On GNX, Kendrick Lamar doesn’t just dominate—he defines the space around him, daring anyone else to step into it.
GRAMMY FOR ALBUM OF THE YEAR
Kendrick Lamar is the king of many things. The Grammys worshipped him with "Not Like Us," bestowing every possible title on the song. GNX feels like a full project born from that success, and the Grammys are likely to see the glory in this project just as they did before. The only thing Kendrick has working for him is his the ferocity of his competition, and the indignation of his own confidence in his glory. Any time you're up against Kendrick Lamar, he's always going to be one of the fiercest competitors. But is he truly strong enough to take it all?
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