As rumored, Kendrick Lamar appears to have new music on the way, and on Friday morning he dropped a minute-long teaser titled “GNX” that is presumably part of a larger work.
The song features a siren-like drone in the background while many multitracked Lamar vocals create a complex, chant-like melody more similar in feel to many of the songs from his most recent album, 2022’s “Mr. Morale and the High Steppers” than his blockbuster Drake-dissing track “Not Like Us,” released earlier this year, which topped the Billboard Hot 100. The lyrics are difficult to understand, but we’re sure they’ll be posted on Genius.com soon enough.
While Lamar’s music is usually released slowly and deliberately, this year he’s dropped four singles — “6:16 in L.A.,” “Euphoria,” “Meet the Grahams” and “Not Like Us” — around an unusually aggressive beef with Drake, following the Canadian rapper’s lyric that characterized himself, Lamar and J. Cole as equals. The comment seemed to set of Lamar in a way he previously had not done in his career, beginning with his guest verse with Future and Metro Boomin on “Like That,” which was also a major hit single this year.
He has worked with a number of different producers on those songs, including his longtime collaborator Sounwave as well as Jack Antonoff, the Alchemist, Sean Momberger and others.
He also headlined a Los Angeles concert dubbed “Ken & Friends” in June that saw him joined onstage by his early mentor, Dr. Dre. The show was divided into three sections, the first a set of West Coast artists under DJ Hed, the second under “Not Like Us” producer Mustard, and the third headlined by Lamar.
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