Kendrick Lamar spent a great deal of 2024 grinding Drake’s bones to make his bread. The former collaborators had an exhausting summer spat. Drake never stood a chance.
Lamar’s dissing missives had rapier-sharp bite and savage observations, turned over with a swift, almost religious, fervour. Everyone crowned Kendrick the winner.
Then GNX, Lamar’s surprise sixth studio album, landed this week. Despite Lamar scaling heights hitherto unfathomable in hip-hop (including winning the Pulitzer Prize), this is just shovelling topsoil on Drake’s grave.
His flow on ‘Peekaboo’ and ‘Hey Now’ has the off-kilter cadence of a man who’s still really, really pissed. This is incredible music undone by hyper-localised context. Nitpicking from an artist so clearly unparalleled feels uncomfortable.
It’s especially bewildering when, on tracks like ‘Dodger Blue’ and ‘Luther’ (featuring SZA), his genius abounds so effortlessly. GNX sees Lamar ascend further into God Mode.
