This is already his sixth album and once again Kendrick Lamar shows himself to be absolutely breathtaking in creativity, imagination, musical mastery, and probably never since Marvin Gaye or Isaac Hayes has the groove been so powerful. Soberly titled “GNX”, it came out of nowhere on November 22 to revolutionize rap. And he named this revolution after his father’s car in ’87, the Buick Grand National Experimental…GNX. And too bad if the twelve compositions seem to go by at lightning speed, it’s concentrated Lamar, in a way. Because the intensity of this flow explodes in just over 44 minutes, for a phenomenon record which has already simultaneously charted SEVEN hits in the US Top 10… an incredible record for an incredible masterpiece from the new King of LA.
Almost two and a half years after his “Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers” (See on Gonzomusic KENDRICK LAMAR “Mr Morale & The Big Steppers) Kendrick Lamar (See on Gonzomusic https://gonzomusic.fr/?s=Kendrick+Lamar ) prepares a surprise return swinging this “GNX” like an unpinned grenade. Always faithful to his city, you will hardly recognize any famous guests in this new album, with the exception of SZA and saxophonist Kamasi Washington, because this time the famous rapper from Compton only invited on his “GNX” newcomers to the LA hip hop scene, such as Wallie the Sensei, AzChike and Hitta J3, as well as emerging local groups like Dody6 and YoungThreat for a record that the total color of G Funk. And it is with the evocative mariachi singing of singer Deyra Barrera that this “GNX” begins with “Wacced Out Murrals”. Lamar discovered her when she performed at Dodger Stadium. The title is dark, pulsating, with the heady vocals of Deyra Barrera responding in echo to Lamar’s climatic flow, on the longest composition of the project, 5′ 19”. Then the punchy “Squabbled Up” doesn’t take long to shake us up with its sample of “When I Hear Music” by Debbie Deb, in the purest Lamar-style syncopated style. But it is on “Luther”, the third track, that the album breaks away from terrestrial attraction to reach stratospheric heights, propelled by its sample of a luminous composition by Marvin Gaye, “If This World Were Mine », vocalized by Luther Vandross and Cheryl Lyn.
Then, the climatic “Man At the Garden” pulses like a heartbeat and it is undoubtedly one of the flagship tracks which illuminate this particularly emotional album on a beat as pure as it is heady, which continues to increase in tension . Then we let ourselves be carried away by “Hey Now”, more classic in the punchy and muscular Lamar style, but it is with “Reincarnated”, where after an intro by Deyra Barrera, Kendrick Lamar pays homage to his home boy from LA, the immense Tupac Shakur (See on Gonzomusic https://gonzomusic.fr/?s=Tupac) through the sample of “Made Nigazz” from his short-lived group the Outlawz in 1995 and this gives one of the most captivating titles of this “GNX”. Likewise, the sticky “TV Off” is a festival of musical references borrowed from John Barry (“The Black Hole Overture”), Jimmy Webb (“McArthur Park”) without forgetting an extrapolation of “Kick In the Door” by Notorious B.I.G. …. nothing but heavy, for Lamar as imaginative as he is body-built. Hit oh my hit… the parade continues with the cool and almost pop “Dodger Blue”, an intoxicating lightness for one of the moments of bravery of this new Lamar. As for the frosty “Peekaboo”, it turns out to be just hypnotic and at the same time intoxicatingly modern, therefore it instantly engraves itself in the neurons.
If “Heart Part 6” flows on the nonchalant groove of a 90’s sample by Chad Hugo and Pharrell Williams, for the R&B group SWV, when they were operating under their production nickname the Neptunes, with the title song “GNX” Kendrick also gives a nod to the Latino rap scene in his City of Angels, by inviting Peysoh, from Maywood, to rap alongside him and co-sign this track pulsating on its electroshocked beat. Finally, here is the icing on the cake, the fireworks bouquet, “Gloria”, a precious and sensual duet with SZA, THE MEGA HIT of this prodigious album and this revisited soul can only capsize us. We must remember that Lamar will be the hero of the highly publicized halftime show of the Super Bowl next February (See on Gonzomusic) and we can bet on an incredible show. At a time when only Carey and the Lady Gaga/Bruno Mars duo are trying in vain to challenge the supremacy of the new King of LA in the charts, “GNX” revs up its deafening V8 to literally kill the game at the end of the year .
