2024 Number 7: Kendrick Lamar

Gemma's Top 10 Albums of 2024: Number 7
Kendrick Lamar - GNX

Yes, I’ve got a hip hop album on my prog rock list now. It’s my list, folks! If you can’t deal, I have a proper prog rock album for you tomorrow.

There’s no power move quite like releasing an album out of nowhere with no hype or buildup whatsoever, and if there’s one artist who can pull it off surely it’s the guy who this year proved that, without a shadow of a doubt, there’s no big three, just big him. We all enjoyed the spectacle, but what comes after the victory lap?

Drake is alluded to briefly, but he’s mere dirt on the foot of a man who’s always ready to move on. GNX is a punchy, snappy album that varies widely in tone, mood and subject, but it all flows together quite beautifully. It’s more of a backwards-looking album than a forwards-looking one. Legends like Tupac are duly honoured in “Reincarnated”, the album’s emotional centerpiece. The whole thing is a love letter to the West Coast hip hop tradition. There’s a waft of nostalgia to it. There’s something refreshingly free of trend chasing here, barring the trends that Kendrick himself has created.

I’m not steeped in hip hop culture and I won’t pretend I get all the references, or even most of them. I just vibe with it. The sentiment expressed I related to the most is the feeling of being out of empathy for the other side, tired of being asked to compromise who you are, and choosing to prioritize yourself, your own authenticity and development, maybe your own mental health, over endlessly pleasing people who almost certainly wouldn’t do the same for you.

In less capable hands, Kendrick’s move away from heady concept albums like TPAB and Mr. Morale into more song-oriented, straightforward fare might have seemed like a semi-conscious capitulation to the only punch Drake threw at him that almost kinda-sorta nearly stuck: Kendrick just opened his mouth / somebody hand him a grammy right now. Maybe he deliberately positions himself less as an auteur who appeals to the beard stroking intelligentsia, and more as a pop star, someone for the people?

It slides off him anyway. Kendrick is just too good, too good at writing rhymes that make you think and analyze, that make you share in his melancholy or righteous anger, that make you want to listen over and over again. All the while he’s staying firmly in the realm of authenticity and knocking out, what’s the word, bangers, almost as an afterthought. He can do whatever he wants. Maybe he felt he needed to prove it, maybe he didn’t. I wouldn’t say he makes it look easy, the man is intense, but he does make it seem inevitable. I can understand why lesser rap arists (a category that includes basically everyone else) get infuriated by him. So be it. The king rules, the goat bleats.