Last November, Kendrick blessed our ears with a surprise album: GNX. Released in the middle of the day, fans were taken aback, to say the least. Especially here at AHS where students ran around like Paul Revere spreading the news. The album has major Latino influences, as you can hear in the guitar in many of the intros, as well as features from Mariachi singer: Deya Barrera. The album also features artists like SZA, Roddy Ricch, Siete7x, and Lefty Gunplay just to name a few, who are almost all from the LA area. This album is a love letter to the SoCal city and all of its influences, which Kendrick executes perfectly in each of the 12 songs. Here is an assortment of our favorites from the album…
Gloria ft. SZA
Starting with the last song on the album, Gloria is a beautiful ballad about love, passion, and their seemingly simple abilities to break a relationship. “Gloria” (or glory in Spanish) is a metaphor for Lamar’s craft. The song starts with the words in Spanish, “Sentado anita y tú”, sung by Deya Barrera, and leads into the words “Me and my b*tch got a complicated relationship”, alluding to his journey with making music.
“Some ****** wanted you, but they weren’t committed
Preoccupied playin’ John Madden and bullsh*ttin’
Remember when granny died? You looked at me and said, “Baby, dry your eyes
Depend on me as your relief, let your anger be mine”
Lamar explains his ups and downs industry as we see in the lines “Fabrication, I disgust you, then you blocked me, I said, “F*ck you” and “Then fall right back in love the very moment that I touch you.” All backed by Spanish guitar, perfectly aligning with the Latino influences wrapped up within the album. While this track wasn’t everyone’s favorite, we urge you to give it another listen (with the lyrics this time) as the whole listening experience completely changes knowing the meaning behind it.
Man At The Garden
Man At The Garden is a reflective piece about the morals, principles, and promises that Lamar has kept throughout his career, he explains how he “deserves it all” because of this and poses a question to his fans, asking what they’ve done to “deserve it all.” “The garden” Kendrick references in the track’s title refers to the Garden of Eden, the biblical utopia only for those free of sin.
“I deserve it all
More money, more power, more freedom
Everything Heaven allowed us, b*tch
I deserve it all”
The slow and almost spoken verses make this track stand out from the rest, forcing listeners to listen to the lyrics first rather than missing the meaning altogether when distracted by a high-tempo beat– and for a good reason; Man at the Garden serves as a motivational track as well, as is a common theme in Lamar’s discography.
Dodger Blue
Dodger Blue, referring to the team colors of the Los Angeles baseball team, is an ode to LA and all of its nuances. The SoCal love letter features LA-based artists Wallie the Sensei, Siete7x, and Roddy Rich. Featuring the most artists out of any other song on the album, and discusses west coast culture and what it really means to be an LA native.
“Don’t say you hate L.A. when you don’t travel past the 10
Am I trippin’? Yes, I am
Meditate over some money, I see Franklin, I find zen
B*tch, I’m from the LAnd
Don’t say you hate L.A., but live in L.A. and pretend
My neck on Tarantino, Alejandro, Spike Lee
Just know you took the scenic route if you stand by me, stupid”
The slightly abrasive lyrics are contrasted by a smooth mellow beat, reminiscent of 90’s R&B tracks; such as Use Your Heart by SWV (Which Lamar samples in Heart pt 6 later on in the album) and You Got Me by The Roots ft Erykah Badu. Lamar notably utilizes this style in his album DAMN. as well, on songs like LOYALTY. and LOVE, which was intriguing to see on an otherwise harsher project.
Luther ft. SZA
Luther, SZA’s first feature on the album, is an upbeat track where Kendrick talks about a dream where the weight of the world is lifted and he can focus all his energy on offering love to his partner. During the chorus, the two artists sing together about the tough reality of life, things are imperfect, people act impulsively, and unloyalty. However, after the words “if it was up to me,” the chorus continues as the singers describe how if they had it their way, they would not pay attention to others and give everything to their partner. Each verse closely mirrors this theme.
“In this world, concrete flowers grow
Heartache, she only doin’ what she know
Weekends, get it poppin’ on the low
Better days comin’ for sure,”
In the first verse, Lamar compares his figurative partner to the Roman numeral seven, which is a symbol from the bible that represents perfection. He then raps that if the world were his, he would facilitate his partner’s dreams and punish their enemies by introducing them to the light of fire. This illustrates Kendrick Lamar’s immense love for his partner but also alludes to the burden that he carries outside of his visions, where despite his desires, the world requires him to focus his attention on many different things outside of his love life. The song’s rhythmic and bubbly beat beautifully accompanies the lyrics, making for a very enjoyable listening experience.
Reincarnated
Reincarnated, the 6th song on the album, also begins with a few words in Spanish, again sung by Deya Barrera. The lyrics are “Que reflejan tu mirada // La noche, tú y yo,” and they translate to “that reflects your gaze // the night, you and I”. This is possibly a continuation of the Spanish lyrics at the beginning of a previous song called “Wacced out Murals”. The song tells the story of three individuals in three verses, the first being a rebellious young man who is an extremely talented guitarist. The guitarist, speculated to be John Lee Hooker, is said to be from Michigan. The guitarist is said to have been kicked out of his home at a young age by his father. Towards the end of the first verse, Lamar raps, “But I manipulated power as I lied to the masses,” which is referring to Hooker’s habit of selling records under various pseudonyms to avoid restrictions by record labels. The verse ends with a criticism of Hooker’s lack of charitable donations, dying a sellout in Lamar’s eyes.
The second verse reincarnates Lamar as a performer in the Chitlin Circuit. The singer he plays the role of is described as a “musical genius” who has an angelic voice. The performer is said to be very satisfied with her life, but unable to escape addiction. His lyrics in the verse talk about how normalized hard drugs like penicillin, heroin, and cocaine are in the streets, and again talks about how the musician’s father disowned her and looked the other way. I believe that this verse critiques the music industry as a whole, where many extremely talented artists fall to drug addiction due to drugs being the norm. Although they are not described in the song, artists like Juice WRLD come to mind.
“Tell me every deed that you done and what you do it for
I kept one hundred institutions paid
Okay, tell me more
I put one hundred hoods on one stage
Okay, tell me more
I’m tryna push peace in L.A.
But you love war
No, I don’t
Oh, yes, you do
Okay, then tell me the truth
Every individual is only a version of you”
Finally, the last verse reincarnates Kendrick Lamar as himself. This verse talks about Lamar’s life, as well as the previous lives he described in the song. Lamar sings, “my father kicked me out the house, I finally forgive him, I’m old enough to understand the way I was living,” talking about multiple people. First about himself, as he was kicked out of his house in real life, as well as the person described in the first verse. He then closes his eyes and begins a conversation with his father, symbolizing god. He starts out by asking if he finally got it (his life) right, claiming he did everything he could to be selfless. God responds by saying Lamar did well, but residue from his past is keeping him from having an open heart. Lamar then lists a few of his accomplishments and values, one being his concert “Pop Out” concert in June, where members of many different gangs all across LA came together on stage to sing “Not Like Us,” a diss track that was part of Lamar’s feud with Canadian rapper, Drake. At the end of the verse, God says “You crushed a lot of people keeping their thoughts in captivity,” and Lamar responds “And I’m ashamed that I ever created that enemy.” Although this lyric could mean many things, I speculate that Lamar is saying that he regrets his feud with Drake, since it likely caused both of them a great deal of stress and could have interfered with their creative liberty in some ways.
All in all, GNX is a beautiful and energetic album full of hidden stories and allusions. For the casual listener, the album is great for everyday listening in the car, at home, and even in the gym. For the rap-enthusiast, the album is endless fuel for interpretation and study, with many places one can take creative liberty and ask “what if Lamar was talking about this?”
