"GNX" Kendrick Lamar

 "GNX", or how Kendrick Lamar imposed himself 

as one of the best rappers of all time

On the 22th of November 2024 the 6th album of Kendrick Lamar, GNX, was realeased, and was immediatly a huge success everywhere in the world. But who is Kendrick Lamar ?

Kendrick Lamar Duckworth also known as Kendrick Lamar, was born in Compton, California in 1987. He had a complicated relationship with his father, being a member of a Chigaco gang. Anyway, at sixteen, Kendrick publishes his first mixtape under the name of K-Dot. He changes his name in 2009, for his EP named "Kendrick Lamar". But his real glory time begins in 2011, when Snoop Dog, Dr Dre, Korupt and The game named him the "New king of the west coast".

All this story leads us to the 22th of November 2024. "GNX" is a short album (44 min, 14 tracks). All the songs are very complex, many people work on them. For example, "Reincarnated" has been written by 14 differents persons, and composed by 12. When the project is published, it is a big surprise for everybody. Lamar never metionned that he was preparing something, and he did not promote it at all. Some people say that even his label learnt it at the last moment. Maybe that played a role in the crazy impact of the album. It fastly reaches the top 1 of the American bilboard, and becomes gold disk in France. His title "tv off" has today 127 millions of views on youtube. Anyway, it is immediatly considered as a great album.

Another strenght of the project, I think, is the diversity of his influences. In "GNX", we can hear sample from Tupac but also completly different styles, like south american music, Marvin Gaye and Pharell Williams. For me, that makes it a very complete album in terms of sounds.

That is why for me, "GNX" is one of the best album of the last decade, and Kendrick Lamar one of the best rappers of all time.