00:00 - 00:02

kendrick lamar

00:04 - 00:08

oh my god i can't believe this is happening it's so funny because everyone

00:08 - 00:11

was suspecting a surprise album drop like 2 months ago after the elusive

00:11 - 00:15

watch the party die release and when an album didn't come out that night or that

00:15 - 00:19

weekend or the weekend after that we all slowly let our guards down i was ready

00:19 - 00:23

to let it go i was ready to wait until at least february before anything else

00:23 - 00:26

happened maybe something new at the super bowl halftime show out of nowhere

00:26 - 00:30

on an unsuspecting november 22nd kung fu kenny emerges from the mist a quick

00:30 - 00:36

teaser video followed not even 5 minutes later by a full album and i'm so nervous

00:36 - 00:40

i'm so nervous but with that let's begin

00:54 - 00:58

i thought kendrick was introducing a proverbial mural but it turns out

00:58 - 01:02

someone actually defaced his commemorative mural in his hometown of compton just

01:02 - 01:05

goes to show how there will always be people trying to tear down their own

01:05 - 01:10

community's progress / oh why does he keep doing that

01:47 - 01:53

whoa wait he posted it / the strings are foreboding with an impending sense of

01:53 - 01:57

battle while let down by some of his heroes namely lil wayne and snoop dogg

01:57 - 02:01

kendrick has the resilience to endure it's whatever though

02:19 - 02:22

it's all love

02:45 - 02:49

earlier i panicked when he censored himself since i'm nosy and i want to

02:49 - 02:53

know who or what he's talking about but really you could fill in the blank with

02:53 - 02:57

anybody and the message wouldn't change

03:09 - 03:13

oh okay okay

03:23 - 03:27

yes oh i've been excited to hear this

03:27 - 03:31

track since the snippet played in the intro of the music video for not like us

03:31 - 03:34

apparently it's common for kendrick to tease things that never come out so i'm

03:34 - 03:37

glad this one made it out of his purgatory

03:48 - 03:53

this instrumental is so yeah

04:06 - 04:10

given the track's repetitive structure crowd chance and west coast

04:10 - 04:13

bounce kendrick really dropped this album right on time for us to learn the

04:13 - 04:18

material for a fresh energetic super bowl halftime show

04:26 - 04:30

i'm so glad that we finally got this but it was much different than what

04:30 - 04:32

i was expecting

04:40 - 04:44

after seeing tons of “rest in peace” comments i looked up luther

04:44 - 04:48

vandross since the song bears his name he was a legendary r&b singer who passed

04:48 - 04:56

away in 2005 and this track pays homage to his lovely musical style and spirit

05:18 - 05:23

it's so lovely to love and what a beautiful energy glows from this song it

05:23 - 05:27

radiates warmth like sunlight the gentle tension inviting me in i love love love

05:27 - 05:32

the way kendrick and sza's words dance around each other supporting each other

05:39 - 05:44

this is so pretty

05:48 - 05:53

for me luther is probably top three

05:53 - 05:58

from this collection just gorgeous

06:01 - 06:04

sza's introduction on this was so perfect oh my god i was just thinking that's

06:04 - 06:09

probably the reaction that what's his name travis scott that's probably that's

06:09 - 06:12

probably the reaction that travis scott wanted out of me introducing sza on

06:12 - 06:17

utopia sorry kendrick got it oh absolutely beautiful production also

06:17 - 06:24

just all the little pretty high details in the back oh my god

06:33 - 06:36

when i first saw the track title i took it as a religious reference however my

06:36 - 06:40

personal religious lens might be skewed since i doubt kendrick lamar is

06:40 - 06:44

referring to joseph smith's first vision at the garden

06:58 - 07:02

now i look at it more like kendrick has done a lot to take care of

07:02 - 07:06

his loved ones his community and beyond he's tended his garden and he deserves

07:06 - 07:09

to see its beauty

07:24 - 07:29

a good gardener must often destroy to create kendrick pulls weeds

07:29 - 07:32

to protect protect his blooms and cuts away dead branches for new growth he

07:32 - 07:36

tends his garden with equal parts love and violence understanding that both are

07:36 - 07:39

necessary for life to flourish

07:56 - 08:00

chills

08:19 - 08:24

what is that sound / what a sinister beat it sounds like an evil spirit

08:24 - 08:29

laughing or a leaky pipe in a concrete cell where jigsaw's got me chained up the

08:29 - 08:31

sparse instrumental lets kendrick unleash his pen

08:31 - 08:36

a therapeutic flow

09:00 - 09:04

the added high-pitched synthesiser lead and airy kick drum create even more

09:04 - 09:10

hypnotic intensity like a command with an underlying threat

09:38 - 09:42

i really loved dody's verse and voice so i looked him up he's a seriously

09:42 - 09:46

underground rapper who had been locked up since 2017 or 2018 yet still dropped

09:46 - 09:50

a bunch of music in the meantime now that's dedication to the craft and i

09:50 - 09:53

think kendrick saw it in him too

09:56 - 10:01

very different production style to what i uh listened to before oh mustard

10:01 - 10:07

tracks five and six both very self-important i think that it's implied

10:07 - 10:11

i think that it's very obvious that kendrick had quite the year this year

10:11 - 10:15

and quite the career in general like all throughout his artistry very proud of

10:15 - 10:18

him i definitely think that he deserves all of his flowers but i just can't help

10:18 - 10:23

but think like of all of the drake fans for example just based off what they've

10:23 - 10:27

commented on my videos they're definitely going to uh take that and

10:27 - 10:30

run with it kind of putting him down for not being so humble about it i think

10:30 - 10:34

it's kind of not human to be humble about it at this point after the entire

10:34 - 10:37

world has been chanting you know that that he's one of the greatest artists of

10:37 - 10:41

all time so i don't know what can you do what can you do does that even make

10:41 - 10:45

sense i don't know

11:04 - 11:09

much of kendrick's music explores legacy inheritance cycles so i'm not surprised

11:09 - 11:13

to hear him discuss reincarnation i mean i know he recently told us he hasn't

11:13 - 11:17

done ayahuasca but psychedelic culture and spiritual seeking have clearly shaped

11:17 - 11:20

his outlook

11:34 - 11:37

oh dude wait

11:56 - 12:04

who is he talking about chitlin circuit yeah i've already seen

12:04 - 12:07

endless debates theorizing who's who this alone shows me that the specifics

12:07 - 12:11

don't matter his conversation with god frames reincarnation as punishment

12:11 - 12:17

trapping him in a loop body after body until he can prove himself

12:39 - 12:42

nevertheless in the days that the prophecies of isaiah shall be fulfilled

12:42 - 12:46

men shall know of assurity at the times when they shall come to pass i'm not

12:46 - 12:52

religious anymore but yeah i'm pretty familiar with isaiah

13:00 - 13:05

oh my goodness the storytelling in this one that's crazy and who is he talking

13:05 - 13:09

about here i don't know i don't know enough history i'm going to have to do a little

13:09 - 13:15

bit of research on this one but the concept beautiful the concept beautiful

13:24 - 13:29

it's the screens those darn screens ruining society these days

13:29 - 13:33

oh but unironically kendrick has been very vocal about getting off the screens

13:33 - 13:37

and going out to do the work to make the world a better place step one is to turn

13:37 - 13:41

the tv off

14:06 - 14:09

hey

14:33 - 14:37

and this is a rallying cry the song is bursting with hype and horns and urgency

14:37 - 14:42

to engage with the world to pay your rent with meaningful action

14:56 - 15:01

no okay i don't know where we left off whatever

15:25 - 15:31

oh my god mustard i was thinking some of the flow in tv

15:31 - 15:35

off and then i can't remember one of the earlier songs sounded very similar to

15:35 - 15:39

the flow in not like us i guess i can't be mad considering that's uh one of his

15:39 - 15:43

biggest songs ever if not the biggest i don't know

15:52 - 15:56

i don't know anything about the la dodgers aside from the name case in

15:56 - 16:00

point i had to google which sport they play turns out they're a major league

16:00 - 16:03

baseball team bought from brooklyn bringing america's favorite pastime to

16:03 - 16:08

the west coast and growing into one of the mlb's most successful franchises a

16:08 - 16:11

big source of pride in the city

16:21 - 16:26

there are so many people on this track i only recognize sam dew and roddy

16:26 - 16:30

ricch but it's amazing to watch kendrick celebrate so many many west coast folks

16:30 - 16:33

in this love letter to la

16:34 - 16:38

sam dew

16:39 - 16:45

i just love how much kendrick loves his home can't relate

16:48 - 16:55

what

17:03 - 17:07

i feel like we've been playing peekaboo with kendrick this entire year with so

17:07 - 17:10

many unexpected and unconventional surprise drops from him including this

17:10 - 17:14

album oh we've been so blessed

17:25 - 17:30

me trying to talk myself off the ledge

17:45 - 17:49

the genius annotations say that this is dody again but the official links

17:49 - 17:53

clarify it's an artist named a azchike i guess that's a slight oversight on an

17:53 - 17:59

album with hidden features when you're trying to promote smaller artists

17:59 - 18:05

that's going to be stuck in my head forever heart part six

18:05 - 18:10

canon canon because it's in the album

18:10 - 18:13

and not released beforehand

18:21 - 18:26

on first listen this was an instant favorite it's just so striking

18:26 - 18:31

nostalgic full of admiration and that title reclaiming the heart part six this is

18:31 - 18:34

what this was all for

18:44 - 18:50

oh this is so visual so beautiful

19:14 - 19:17

i still haven't listened to the other heart parts yet but i do know they're

19:17 - 19:20

supposed to be thematically connected to the following body of work while a core

19:20 - 19:23

theme of gnx seems to be about spotlighting the west coast and

19:23 - 19:28

influence i like the idea of kendrick keeping his heart for himself safely

19:28 - 19:32

protected by the album's other songs

20:01 - 20:05

oh i had no clue all those artists he just mentioned were meant to be with him

20:05 - 20:09

in a group called black hippy that makes this track make so much more sense

20:09 - 20:12

damn now i'm kind of sad that it never came together at least i kind of got to

20:12 - 20:15

hear all of them in the black panther album

20:49 - 20:56

enimigo / the final catwalk shows a few more

20:56 - 21:00

west coast artists flaunting their skills and they all deliver i'd love to know

21:00 - 21:04

the stories of how kendrick picked each and every feature

21:10 - 21:14

i like peysoh's voice hi

21:21 - 21:25

the reverse strings

21:26 - 21:30

i wonder why this track became the title track i guess a big part of it

21:30 - 21:34

is the call for respect recognition and street credit speaking of streets the

21:34 - 21:39

gnx is kendrick's coveted classic vehicle a powerful car with street

21:39 - 21:45

dominance okay fine i had to google gnx i know nothing about cars in fact i hate them

22:07 - 22:12

youngthreat's voice very threatening indeed um i haven't heard of these artists

22:12 - 22:15

i wonder if they're also from compton since in that previous song he mentioned

22:15 - 22:20

that he was bringing some of his people from home on the scene i don't know if

22:20 - 22:25

he was referring to the the pop out or to these artists gnx same as the album

22:25 - 22:29

title i'm going to take a wild guess and assume it's the name of this car

22:38 - 22:41

am i wrong

22:48 - 22:52

god, re-listening to this after knowing the twist ending makes me feel

22:52 - 22:56

so slow like duh he made it so obvious every single line he totally had me

22:56 - 22:59

fooled into thinking that this was a love letter to whitney i guess the

22:59 - 23:03

surprises don't stop

23:50 - 23:53

i should have known though he has a track record of this like in wesley's

23:53 - 23:57

theory at first i did love you but now i just want to fuck that whole song was

23:57 - 24:00

actually about the music industry or that similar comparison between writing

24:00 - 24:04

and romance on poetic justice

24:24 - 24:29

the song also reminds me stylistically of how much a dollar cost

24:29 - 24:32

due to the detailed storytelling how much tension it builds up as the

24:32 - 24:36

narrative unfolds and the gut punch reveal at the end kendrick is leaving us

24:36 - 24:40

with a reminder of just how masterful he is in his craft

24:51 - 24:57

oh this one most reminiscent of mr

24:57 - 25:02

morale for me really nice to see the uh the influence or the consistency

25:02 - 25:06

whatever you want to chalk that up to happy to see sza on here again i really

25:06 - 25:11

love their chemistry i know that she interviewed him for that uh i think it

25:11 - 25:17

was harper's bazaar magazine in general i think that sza has a very nice aura

25:17 - 25:21

around her very interesting album a little i think the least cohesive at

25:21 - 25:29

least upon first glance very short also 12 tracks 44 minutes very lovely though

25:29 - 25:33

very lovely i loved it i don't even know if i have much to say none of this

25:33 - 25:37

really left me like pondering as much as the other albums have but i'm sure

25:37 - 25:41

there's a lot of influence a lot of reference and homage that i'm missing

25:41 - 25:44

that's just going over my head i know that happens a lot especially with

25:44 - 25:49

kendrick and i'm sure that you will let me know in the comments as you tend to

25:49 - 25:53

do so thank you so much for listening with me i hope you're doing well no one

25:53 - 25:56

really knows what's coming next it'll probably be chromakopia because i didn't

25:56 - 26:00

even have the chance to finish that video before kendrick dropped this album

26:00 - 26:05

so until then stay tuned stay safe and be kind

Unveiling Kendrick Lamar's Surprise Album: a West Coast Ode

In a whirlwind of suspense and surprise, Kendrick Lamar astounds fans with a sudden album drop, GNX. This unexpected release follows months of speculation and anticipation. Through a dynamic journey, Kendrick immerses us in a blend of storytelling, homage, and raw emotion, showcasing the vibrant West Coast culture.

Unraveling the Tracks: A Dive into

Kendrick mesmerizes with tracks like "Luther," a heartfelt tribute to R&B legend Luther Vandross, channeling warmth and beauty. Collaborating with the talented SZA, their synergy elevates the enchanting "Utopia." The album unfolds with narrative depth in "Prophecy," delving into themes of reincarnation and self-redemption.

Reflecting on West Coast Influences

With "Heart Part Six," Kendrick masterfully intertwines nostalgia and admiration, reclaiming his artistry. The collaborative spirit shines in tracks like "Black Hippy," underscoring his love for his community and roots. The energizing "Enimigo" and "GNX" exude street cred, embodying Kendrick's fierce creativity.

A Masterclass in Craftsmanship

Through intricate storytelling and nuanced production, Kendrick showcases his mastery in tracks like "TV Off" and "The Final Catwalk." The careful selection of features and thematic depth make GNX a rich tapestry of sound and message. Kendrick's artistry, both bold and introspective, leaves a lasting impact.

As we immerse ourselves in GNX, Kendrick Lamar's legacy continues to evolve, expanding boundaries and redefining hip-hop. With each track, he invites us to ponder, celebrate, and embrace the essence of West Coast culture. Kendrick's sonic journey is not just an album; it's a profound experience—a testament to his unparalleled artistry.

Stay Tuned for More Surprises

As we eagerly anticipate Kendrick's next move, let's savor the magic of GNX. Join the conversation, delve into the layers of his music, and embrace the journey with an open heart. Kendrick Lamar has once again proven why he stands as a beacon of creativity and innovation in the music industry.

Let the music of GNX resonate, inspire, and ignite your soul. In the world of Kendrick Lamar, the unexpected is always around the corner. So, stay tuned, stay safe, and above all, stay kind—because with Kendrick, the journey is just beginning.