REVIEW: KENDRICK LAMAR - GNX

4/5

Not Like Him 

The undisputed belt of gold, in a big-three battle with a humiliated Drake and a conceded J. Cole, to be truly "big me" like a Foo Fighters song. A spot on next year's Super Bowl half-time show that has Lil' Wayne fans wheezing, F. Baby. And now a brand-new all-black everything 'GNX' to go with a surprise album for the fans. DAMN! Kendrick Lamar is pimping butterflies all over again with his first album since 2022's 'Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers' that also came out of nowhere. And one of his best west's since 2012's 'Good Kid, M.A.A.D. City' for this crazy world and not so united state of America (like O'Shea Jackson called it). Just when Ice Cube thought he had a clear lane on the gridlocked LA highway with 'Man Down'. A week after New Music Friday was dominated by the likes of Linkin Park, Gwen Stefani, St. Vincent, Jon Batiste, Jin of BTS, Dolly Parton and Mary J. Blige. Section.80, stand up! The man with the biggest song of the year and most successful diss-track of all-time comes in with brand-new material when he could have made an entire album out of all those Drake disses. But this is not like that.

October's Very Own would have a long way to climb to pull down this fall banner moment in November. Just like fellow Compton legend DeMar DeRozan said about his own retired Raptor jersey, another King balling out in The 6 of Toronto. They may be the North, but HE is the west. Bringing the best like the Shohei Ohtani MVP track of 'dodger blue' on a 'peekaboo' that makes "eighty-pointers like a Kobe game." There are monuments to those athletes across the City of Angels, but 'wacced out murals' is like nothing you've heard before from Kendrick Lamar. Harder than trying to get a seat at Starbucks on a Saturday or Sunday, Kung-Fun Kenny, with word to Don Cheadle, raps the truth like, "Ridin' in my GNX with Anita Baker in the tape deck, it's gon' be a sweet love/F### apologies, I wanna see y'all geeked up/Don't acknowledge me, then maybe we can say it's fair/Take it to the internet and I'ma take it there/Miss my uncle Lil' Mane, he said that he would kill me if I didn't make it/Now I'm possessed by a spirit and they can't take it/Used to bump Tha Carter III, I held my Rollie chain proud/Irony, I think my hard work let Lil Wayne down/Whatever, though, call me crazy, everybody questionable/Turn me to an eskimo, I drew the line and decimals/Snoop posted "Taylor Made," I prayed it was the edibles/I couldn't believe it, it was only right for me to let it go/Won the Super Bowl and Nas the only one congratulate me." It's not just Drake whose artistry ain't safe.

Spare a thought for Father John Misty, forget Ice Cube, who always seems to release an album on the same day as K. Dot. The black and white of this instantly iconic album art pays homage to the real greats like 'luther', Anita Baker and samples of Debbie Deb ('When I Hear Music' on 'squabble up'), Marvin Gaye (on 'If This World Was Mine' sampled by 'luther' Vandross) and Cheryl Lynn. The Neptunes of Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo, we hope, align like planets again, with SWV's 'Use Your Heart' for 'Heart Pt. 6'. And the caterpillar pimped of Tupac Shakur's 'Made N####z', on a 'Reincarnated' track for 'Pac. All praise to Kendrick and his producers for this crate digging, but how about all the uncredited stars that appear on this dozen definition of an album? The 'Lana' of SZA reunites after 'Black Panther' for the forever like Wakanda tracks of 'luther' and 'gloria'. Whilst Dody6 says 'hey now'. Wallie the Sensei and Siete, gives a former Angel and best before and after Babe more love on 'dodger blue'. All before Dody6 returns with AzChike on 'peekaboo'. The album's title-track, mind you, feels like a carpool posse cut, with Peysoh, Hitta J3 and YoungThreat all getting in on the ride for one of the best rappers, dead, or alive.

Wanted. Like the in-demand production of Jack Antonoff that speaks English and Spanish in these real Los Angeles times. This sixth man album in the scope for Interscope that's going to have one hell of an aftermath, also features jazz icon Kamasai Washington (who knows all about hidden, surprise albums) on the Lamar legacy making legend of 'luther', and the sweeter jazz sounds of Terrace Martin on the big-hitting 'dodger blue' like a Yokohama BayStars champion. But it's 'man at the garden' that really knocks it out the park for the gladiator in the Colosseum. Expect the King that calls himself 'The Man In The Arena' to be rapping along to, "Twice emotional stability/Of sound body and tranquillity/I deserve it all/Like minds and less enemies/Stock investments, more entities/I deserve it all/VVSs, white diamonds/GNX with the seat back, reclinin', b####" the next time his purple and gold rolls into the Big Apple of New York's Madison Square. Like Heron with the wordplay, the revolution will not be televised. It will hit the airwaves. So cut the 'TV Off' because, "this is not a song/this is a revelation." Like buying the car his dad brought him home in after his birth. This Buick Regal is fit for the man who just showed that no one else is watching his throne. TIM DAVID HARVEY.

Playlist Picks: 'Wacced Out Murals'. 'Luther', 'Dodger Blue'.

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