This past decade, Kendrick Lamar made a name for himself as one of the best, if not the best, rapper of our generation. Through captivating lyrics, world-building, and life-changing albums, he gave listeners a new perspective on his life and the world that we live in. In recent years, Lamar has stood out from other rappers in the industry, especially in 2024. The question being, how did Lamar make 2024 his year?
GNX, an album that was released unexpectedly on November 22, 2024, is the sixth studio album by Lamar, released through PGLang and Interscope Records. This album was inspired and titled after the 1987 Buick Grand National Experimental car model, which was labeled as “feared” when it came out. It was also the same model that Lamar’s father used to take him home from the hospital after his birth. GNX consists of 12 songs, having a running time of 44 minutes and 20 seconds, the shortest studio album of Lamar’s career. Though there were no tracks included from his feud with Canadian rapper Drake, its sentiment “still looms over the album,”according to Vulture. It’s a West Coast hip-hop album, a tribute to Los Angeles (LA), which prominently featured G-funk throughout several tracks.
Throughout Lamar’s career, he has consistently shown a large amount of love for Los Angeles across his discography. GNX is the album where the love is shown the most, by featuring underground rap artists from Los Angeles on the album to give them their deserved recognition. The features listed were Dody6, Lefty Gunplay, AzChike, Hitta J3, YoungThreat, and Peysoh. Some were from more known artists such as Roddy Ricch and SZA. Before GNX, Lamar released a track titled “Watch The Party Die,” which focused on the music and Hollywood industry slowly getting exposed for the inhumane acts of popular artists, actors, and other widely known figures in the industry. He released that track because the world of hip-hop has woken up and has finally begun to change due to Lamar’s influence and participation through the diss singles he released in the earlier months of 2024 against Drake. Each track placed in GNX has a little something for everyone, even for people who don’t really listen to Lamar’s music. Lamar and SZA pay a brilliant homage to the 1982 “If This World Were Mine,” a duet between 80s R&B legends Cheryl Lynn and Luther Vandross on “luther,” the third track of the album. A listener on Reddit posted their opinion on the album, and their take on it was unique and intriguing. They and other listeners believe that GNX is a concept album rooted in Genesis, which they don’t see many people understanding. The listener also explained that the inspiration for the title of GNX may have been from Moses, who authored Genesis in the Hebrew language. In this format, Genesis would appear as GNSS, and in Middle English scripts and early scribes, multiple “S” sounds were sometimes replaced with “X.” Therefore, GNX is an artistic, hypothetical English script for Genesis. That is just the listener’s curiosity, but the album’s themes convey a deeper connection to the biblical Genesis and Moses.
They also made a breakdown of key tracks and their possible references. Starting with “wacced out murals,” the lyrics “Couple rules of engagements here to guide you”, evokes the Ten Commandments that Moses brought down from Mount Sinai to guide the Israelites. “Whacked the murals out but it ain’t no legends if my legend ends” sees Lamar referring to himself as a modern-day scribe, keeping record of “legends” and stories, much like Moses.
In “luther,” Lamar raps, “Roman numerals seven bae drop it like it’s hot.” That could reference the seven days of creation. It may also hint at an upcoming album, with GNX being his “Exodus”-themed follow-up to complete the biblical parallel. “If this world was mine, I’d take your dreams and make them multiply.” Lamar is stating that if he had ultimate power over the world, he’d want to empower his lover’s dreams and wishes, and multiply them. When he raps, “If this world was mine, I’d take your enemies in front of God, introduce em’ to that light, hit em’ strictly with that fire,” it’s actually a triple entendre. He’s saying that he would protect his lover by sending her enemies to God. If someone says, “I’m gonna send you to God” that could either mean that they’re straight up going to kill you, or teach you about God. Both meanings fit the lyrics he raps right after; ‘Introduce em’ to that light’ could mean sending the enemy to heaven after killing them, and “Hit em’ strictly with that fire” could mean sending them to hell after killing them.
The 4th track, “man at the garden” presents Lamar’s whispering voice as a slithering snake. This suggests that he is retelling the story of Satan tempting Eve in the Garden of Eden. “Everything heaven allowed us, I deserve it all” echoes the serpent’s temptation, convincing Eve she deserved divine knowledge. “I’m showin’ up as your friend, tellin’ truths better than your next of kin” mirrors how the devil positioned himself as a friend, leading Eve astray. Adam is referenced in this song as well, hence the song title. The name “Adam” is translated to “man” in Hebrew, being “at the garden.” Lamar uses the analogy of Adam eating the fruit that God forbade him from eating to describe his own ego, ambition, and greed.
The second-to-last track, which is the title track “gnx” has a repeated line, “Tell em’ Kendrick did it.” That line on it’s own feels like a voice of pride. Paired with “Every individual is just a reflection of you” in “reincarnated,” it recalls the devil’s tempting whisper, encouraging people to embrace their pride and take credit for divine miracles–something Moses himself struggled with. Moses was barred from the Promised Land for striking a rock to produce water and claiming the miracle as his own instead of giving credit to God. This theme of wrestling with pride appears frequently in the album.
With these connections, it is clear that GNX is more than just an album. It is a meditation on human pride, divine guidance, and the legacy of biblical figures like Moses. Whether or not this was Lamar’s intent is beyond any listener’s understanding, but the parallels to Genesis are striking and the album’s themes align deeply with the struggles and stories found in the scripture. This album is considered Lamar’s victory lap in his feud with Drake, considering how it sounds and how the world is reacting to it, there couldn’t be a better description for it. It’s truly the endgame of 2024.
