LOS ANGELES (AP) — gave music listeners an early holiday present Friday with the surprise drop of a new album.
The Grammy winner's 12-track “GNX” is his first release since and his sixth studio album overall. It also comes just months after his
Lamar first teased the album with a cover art and video snippet of “GNX,” which features multi-instrumentalist as a co-producer on every track except for “Peekaboo.” Other notable producers include Sounwave and , who both contributed production on the hit “Not Like Us,” the ubiquitous diss track emanating from the Drake feud.
Lamar's former Top Dawg Entertainment labelmate SZA appears on a couple songs including “Gloria” and “Luther,” which also features sampled vocals from Luther Vandross and Cheryl Lynn through “If This World Were Mine."
On the opening track “Wacced Out Murals,” Lamar raps about cruising in his Buick GNX (Grand National Experimental) car with listening to Anita Baker. He brings up Snoop Dogg posting Drake's AI-assisted “Taylor Made Freestyle” diss track on social media and Nas congratulating Lamar for being selected to headline in New Orleans.
Lamar also shows admiration for Lil Wayne, who passed over as the headliner in his hometown.
Lamar, 37, has experienced massive success since his debut album “good kid, m.A.A.d city” in 2012. Since then, he’s accumulated 17 Grammy wins and became the first non-classical, non-jazz musician to for his 2017 album “DAMN.”
The surprise release caps a big year for Lamar, who was featured on the song “Like That” with Future and Metro Boomin — a track that spent three weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 this year.
Lamar is up fueled by “Not Like Us,” which earned nods for record and song of the year, rap song, music video as well as best rap performance. He has two simultaneous entries in the latter category, a career first: “Like That” is up for best rap performance and best rap song, too.
“GNX” track list
1. “Wacced Out Murals”
2. “Squabble Up”
3. “Luther” (feat. SZA)
4. “Man at the Garden”
5. “Hey Now”
6. “Reincarnated”
7. “TV Off”
8. “Dodger Blue”
9. “Peekaboo”
10. “Heart Pt. 6”
11. “GNX”
12. “Gloria” (feat. SZA)
Jonathan Landrum Jr., The Associated Press
