The Album
Kendrick Lamar released GNX in November 2024, and fans were stunned. Amidst a year where multiple rounds of back-and-forth diss tracks were released against Drake and J. Cole, a full album release from Lamar was unexpected. Lamar can be seen casually leaning against a Buick GNX on the album cover; the muscle car model released the same year he was born, and is a symbol of roots, strength, and a champion.
Twelve tracks long and featuring numerous guest features and collaboration with R&B star SZA, this album was full of references or indirect disses to other rappers and popular personalities, according to Surabhi Redkar at Prestige.
“wacced out murals” begins the album, Lamar defending and priding his identity as a genuine rapper, ending the first verse with “I never lost who I am for a rap image/It’s motivation if you wonder how I did it.” He continues the song with testaments to the pressure he faces as a popular creator and public figure, and yet how he never lost himself to the hip-hop or Hollywood lifestyle.
“luther” and “man at the garden” consecutively on GNX both share a story about idealism and prosperity. The former features a duet between Lamar and SZA and details a world dedicated to putting a lover up on a pedestal, erasing any outside stress or conflict to focus solely on the relationship. The latter details a man recounting why he deserved to get through the heavenly gates, amongst “the garden,” commending the work he has done to become the Kendrick he is now by frequently repeating “I deserve it all” throughout the verses.
The titular “gnx” and “squabble up” both pay homage to Lamar’s West Coast home and his identity and personal history in Compton, a historical epicenter for Black talents of all forms and for Black American culture in general.
Overall, through GNX, Lamar details his success and strife with his career, communicating his forgone stress with the social politics of rap and hip-hop, leaving behind a warning across numerous tracks that the disses won’t end if someone tries him again. In this sixth studio album, the Pulitzer Prize winner demonstrates his lyrical prowess and the honorary title of “poet laureate of rap” with each and every lyric.
The Grammy Awards
On February 2nd, at the 67th Grammy Awards, Lamar was nominated in the categories “Record of the Year,” “Song of the Year,” “Best Rap Performance” (twice, for “Not Like Us” and “Like That”), “Best Rap Song” (twice, for “Not Like Us” and “Like That”), and “Best Music Video.” Lamar swept all five of these categories for his song “Not Like Us,” increasing his Grammy nominations to 57 and Grammy wins to 22.
Lamar’s November release of GNX was outside of the release eligibility period for the 67th Grammy Awards, but it is likely to be a grand contender for nominations and wins in this next year’s season of music awards.
The Super Bowl Halftime Performance
Samuel L. Jackson, dressed as American patriotism and propaganda personified “Uncle Sam,” welcomes Kendrick Lamar and the audience into the performance called “the Great American Game.” The game being the reality that Black Americans face in navigating a life in white America amidst the most-watched American game, the Super Bowl. The stage highlights a sequence of game controller icons—square, downward triangle, circle, and “X”—and faint lights in the crowd read “Start Here” with a downward arrow where Kendrick is revealed crouching on the titular 1987 Buick GNX. Lamar begins the following set, surrounded by a full cast of Black dancers dressed in monochrome red, white, or blue outfits:
After “Bodies,” Lamar ad-libs, “The revolution about to be televised/You picked the right time, but the wrong guy.” Referencing the poem sung by Gil Scott-Heron, “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised,” viewers have speculated what Lamar means. Local NBC coverage in Denver, Colorado, interviewed Dr. Sequoia Maner, a poet and professor at Spelman College, to highlight the symbolism in Lamar’s halftime show on the February 9th Super Bowl LIX, sponsored by Apple Music. Maner links the line to Lamar’s track “tv off,” saying that TV is the “opiate of the masses,” and a medium for complacency. Kahlen Barry (@kahlenbarry on TikTok) additionally analyzed Lamar’s performance, saying that Lamar was openly announcing the politics of his performance and that if they didn’t want his open and political music to be performed, then he was not the performer that should have been picked. Further speculation (in the comments of Barry’s video) reads into the political narrative of the performance, saying the “wrong guy” was actually in reference to the elected president, Donald Trump. No confirmations on the meaning have been made.
Jackson as Uncle Sam interjects periodically through the performance and upholding the “American Game”, calling Lamar “too loud, too ghetto” and to “tighten up” after his performance of “squabble up,” and that the performance, featuring guest star SZA alongside Lamar, for “All The Stars” is “what America wants, nice and calm.” Colloquially, squabble up is a double entendre, meaning to fight or to dance—which could be a commentary on two harmful and racist stereotypes against the Black community regarding a jarring spectrum of violent or facetious behavior.
Maner and Jackson additionally speak to the imagery of a full Black dance cast forming the American flag during the performance of “Humble.” Not only is it tantamount to the Black labor that built and developed this country, but the added detail of the bi-cleaved flag is also representative of the divided and polarized political climate of the present United States.
“All The Stars” is a song featured on The Black Panther soundtrack, and the comment by Jackson could be alluding to the pandering of superhero movies towards white audiences despite its nearly full Black cast or that it is one of the few Lamar songs that the politics can easily be written off or seen as more palatable to a broader American (white) audience.
Dr. Maner also spoke to the guest appearance of Serena Williams on the stage, noting that this had potential to be a dig against Drake—the primary target of Lamar’s diss tracks between “Not Like Us” and “tv off”—but was more likely for the 2012 Wimbledon event where Williams celebrated a win by “crip walking,” being chastised by reporters for the dance’s association with the Crip gang in Compton, where both Lamar and Williams are from. When that occurred, Williams announced that it was just a dance. Now having performed it again at the Super Bowl, she continues to defend her stance as a proud Black athlete and as someone who was criticized for her Black identity by Americans and foreigners alike, which speaks to the copious amount of Black pride pouring from Lamar’s entire performance.
And, of course, the moment many had hoped for: the performance of “Not Like Us.” Fans were uncertain whether Lamar would do it, and he did just that a few songs after hinting it would be legally risky because Drake’s team “loves to sue” as he is in an active defamation lawsuit against the song.
The performance ends with “tv off” where Lamar brings collaborator and producer Mustard onto the stage, paying homage to his work behind the scenes. The stage goes dark, and the faint lights in the crowd read “Game Over.” Just like that, the “American Game” was played—did he win or did he lose?
