Last semester I reviewed CHROMAKOPIA by Tyler, the Creator and called it album of the year. That was up until the surprise drop of GNX by Kendrick Lamar. While Tyler’s album still deserves its flowers as one of the best albums of 2024, GNX opened a door to a style of music that many people have never heard. The West Coast sound of hip-hop has been around since the days of Tupac and N.W.A with the use of synthesizers and samples that make people want to move their feet or hit the squabble. Kendrick was raised in this tradition and even went to see a Tupac music video filming in person when he was younger; the West Coast has always been and will always be a part of him. 

However, it seems that some people forgot about this, including and especially the artist, Drake, who he had a rap beef with earlier in 2024. Drake and a multitude of his fans came at Kendrick, saying he doesn’t do enough for his community and hasn’t supported anyone from Compton or Los Angeles throughout his career. Criticism like this can stick because Kendrick does not have a strong media presence. Therefore, any contribution he makes would fly under the radar. Thus, this album serves as his stance and shows that he will always have love for the culture that he was brought up in and that it shouldn’t be in question. 

Kendrick’s album came as a complete surprise, with a random video being dropped on Instagram of him debuting a new song and ending it with text saying “GNX” and a black screen. About 30 minutes after the video dropped, the album then dropped on all streaming services. All of social media was jumping up and down after seeing the release of this album. Most people didn’t expect a Kendrick album for another few years because the time between his critically acclaimed album DAMN and his therapeutic album Mr. Morale and the Big Steppers was about 5 years. When performing live after dropping Mr. Morale, he would say that he’ll be back soon, but people who are fans of artists from Top Dawg Entertainment know that “soon” is a very relative term. It could be two months or two years after the word “soon” is said. However, now that Kendrick has started his own label pgLang, he truly controls when anything drops. Thus, “soon” could mean 30 minutes after the initial announcement. 

All of the songs on the album are inspired by the West Coast sound. He spends his time in some songs being intellectual and reflecting on his own life and shortcomings, and in others just having fun and putting on smaller West Coast artists. For example, my personal favorite song on the album is the title track “gnx,” which features Hitta J3, YoungThreat, and Peysoh. In this song, Kendrick is only on the hook and lets these three smaller West Coast rappers get their two cents off. This move introduces these rappers to a whole new crowd of people. This and his track “heart pt. 6,” written about his reflection on his time with TDE (his old record label), and how, while he is grateful for the time that he had with them, he knows he must go and start his own thing now. 

I think the most beautiful and important part of this project is that not one song (with the exception of one reference in “waxed out murals”) was used to step on or reference the Drake beef. All of his effort regarding this album was just to show respect and love to the West Coast sound and people. He has brought that sound back to the mainstream, which now has a whole city (or even state), ignited with the fire to keep diving into that sound and trying to emulate the beauty of West Coast culture. That is something that is often missing from hip-hop and rap nowadays, being that sometimes you can never tell where a rapper is from when their songs are being played. Back in the ’90s, if there was a rapper from New York, you could tell that they were from New York due to the beats that they rapped over. Now a lot of the time, at least in the mainstream, the beats can sound similar with no regional division. This album helps to open the door back to being proud of the region that you are from, truly emulating that sound, and putting it at the forefront, which hopefully will bleed into the mainstream a little bit more.