GNX

Edit: I’ve seen a bunch of rumors that this is just an appetizer and we’re getting another album and that definitely makes sense given how unusual this album is for Kendrick

HOLY FUCKING SHIT KENDRICK DROPPED AND I FOUND OUT FROM A TIK TOK WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON😭

I was not expecting this album to come out this year at all so I’m very caught off guard by this. I am however really really impressed by everything Kenny did on this album. While I do think it is one of his weakest (it might just need time to grow on me) that isn’t a bad thing at all. Kendrick is one of those artists that has such a consistently amazing discography that you can always rely on him to drop something great. I absolutely adored the very Latin inspired production on a lot of these tracks I think the main song that stuck out to me in terms of production was tv off which had just an absolutely insane beat. Songs like heart part 6, wacced out murals, man at the garden, and reincarnated also stood out production wise. The production on Man at the Garden in particular reminded me a lot of Auntie Diaries with that slow build up throughout the song. While I do think the production was great for most of the album there were a few parts where it let me down a bit, in particular on the title track. The beat is just pretty annoying and takes a lot away from the otherwise great latter half of this album. Other then the production the lyrics are also great (I’d be surprised if they weren’t). The lyrics seem to focus mainly on two things those being the aftermath of all the crazy shit that happened in 2024 and Kendrick’s problems with the music industry as a whole. The album mentions a lot of very important things that happened this year including his Super Bowl announcement (and the lack of support from a lot of the industry), the election (specifically project 2025 and how scary it is. Great to see that I’m not the only one that’s terrified), and of course his absolutely massive beef with Drake. This was probably the biggest year of Kendrick’s career so far mainly due to the beef, and from the looks of it on this album, he isn’t stopping at just Drake. He wants to fix the industry at large. During heart part 6 he talks about his humble beginnings in Black Hippy and how he broke off to go solo. Earlier in the album on man at the garden he talks about how now he feels like he has earned all the praise and rewards from his hard work. I think this is a direct jab at everyone in the industry who didn’t have to go through anything to make it big. Artists like that take up the spotlight from people that really deserve it. So yea I really do think this album is great lyrically all the way through even if the production does falter at times. @Blibloblublub said that this album feels much more like a mixtape then an album and I kind of can’t help but agree with him. While I do think this is a great album I don’t really think it quite lives up to the rest of Kendrick’s discography or the consistently quality tracks he put out in the duration of the beef. The album does have its moments but it is surprisingly inconsistent for Kendrick’s standards. This is just a minor nitpick in the grand scheme of things though as I loved the album and will definitely be bumping it a lot in the next few weeks. Btw I said I was gonna do a Google doc review on Tpab for my 800 followers special and I just wanna say sorry it’s been taking so long I’ve been pretty busy lately but I will try and get that review out as soon as possible

Edit: liking this less and less on every listen
89 —> 79