Maps of Music

GNX (2024)

Where the lyrics of GNX take you, and where it was really made.

The album is named after a car: the 1987 Buick Grand National Experimental that Lamar bought after his Big Steppers tour.

Key places

Recorded at Conway Recording Studios (2024)

Recording site Conway Recording Studios — Conway Recording Studios in Hollywood is listed among the studios where GNX was recorded. The point marks the studio's general location in Hollywood. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Recorded at Electric Lady Studios (2024)

Recording site Electric Lady Studios — Electric Lady Studios in New York City is listed among the studios where GNX was recorded. The point marks the studio's general location in New York City. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Recorded at Sunset Sound (2024)

Recording site Sunset Sound — Sunset Sound in Hollywood is listed among the studios where GNX was recorded. The point marks the studio's general location in Hollywood. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Album story

Overview

• GNX: sixth studio album by American rapper Kendrick Lamar
• Surprise-released 22 November 2024 through PGLang and Interscope Records
• Guest appearances include SZA, Lefty Gunplay, Wallie the Sensei, Roddy Ricch, AzChike, and Hitta J3
• Produced mainly by Sounwave and Jack Antonoff; other producers include Mustard, Sean Momberger, and Kamasi Washington
• Twelve songs, 44 minutes 20 seconds, the shortest studio album of Lamar's career
• West Coast hip-hop album with prominent G-funk

Background

• Title taken from the Buick Regal model
• First Lamar album released after leaving longtime labels Top Dawg Entertainment and Aftermath Entertainment
• Follows Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers, released 13 May 2022
• Work began immediately after that album with Sounwave and Jack Antonoff, around 80 to 100 songs recorded over several years
• After The Big Steppers Tour ended in March 2024, Lamar bought a vintage 1987 Buick Grand National Experimental
• That car model was the high-spec version his father used to take him home from the hospital after his birth
• Released in the middle of Lamar's feud with Drake

Recording

• Recorded at several studios, including Conway Recording Studios in Hollywood, Electric Lady Studios in New York City, Sunset Sound in Hollywood, and Tamarind in Los Angeles
• Mexican regional and mariachi singer Deyra Barrera featured on three songs, after Lamar discovered her at a 2024 Los Angeles Dodgers World Series game

Cover

• Cover photo location is not described in the source text provided.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Tracklist

Sources: musicbrainz.org

Artist

Formation

• Kendrick Lamar Duckworth, born June 17, 1987, in Compton, California.
• Began releasing music as K.Dot in high school; signed with Top Dawg Entertainment in 2005 and co-founded Black Hippy.
• Debut album Section.80 (2011) led to a joint contract with Aftermath Entertainment and Interscope Records.

Career

• Good Kid, M.A.A.D City (2012), To Pimp a Butterfly (2015), and Damn (2017) were ranked among Rolling Stone's greatest albums.
• Damn won the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Music, the first award of this kind for a non-classical or non-jazz work.
• Curated the Black Panther soundtrack (2018); "All the Stars" earned an Academy Award nomination.
• Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers (2022) and GNX (2024) each debuted atop the US Billboard 200.
• Holds six US Billboard Hot 100 number-one singles, including "Humble", "Not Like Us", and "Luther".
• Headlined the Super Bowl LIX halftime show in 2025, the most-watched Super Bowl performance of all time.
• The Grand National Tour with SZA became the highest-grossing co-headlining tour of all time.
• Holds 27 Grammy Awards, the most won by a rapper.
• Co-founded the creative company PGLang with Dave Free in 2020.

Reception

At release

• Metacritic: universal acclaim, weighted average 87 out of 100 from 22 critics
• Exclaim! and Variety praised the tributes to West Coast hip-hop and the cohesive record
• Paste's Matt Mitchell described it as a reimagination of rap's future and Lamar's past
• NME's Kyann-Sian Williams called it an easy contender for the rap album of 2024
• Stereogum's Tom Breihan named it the year's best record and Lamar's greatest work
• The Guardian's Alexis Petridis said Lamar was at his most confrontational, deferring only to God
• The Line of Best Fit's Matthew Kim called it a concise statement of regional pride, braggadocio, and non-conformity
• Rolling Stone's Mosi Reeves called it yet another treatise on hip-hop corporatism
• AllMusic's David Crone called it a pillar of reflective realness and Kendrick's most speaker-knocking set to date
• Pitchfork, Robert Christgau, and Will Hodgkinson gave mixed reviews, citing self-bragging and a clean, synthetic sound
• The New York Times' Jon Caramanica called it impressive but slight

Reappraisal

• Several publications named it among the best albums of 2024, including NPR, the Associated Press, NME, and Rolling Stone
• Complex ranked it number one of 2024

Records

• Debuted at number one on the US Billboard 200 with 319,000 album-equivalent units, Lamar's fifth consecutive US number-one album
• Crossed 500,000 album-equivalent units by the second week
• Debuted at number one in Canada, Australia, and the United Kingdom
• Lamar's second UK number-one album after To Pimp a Butterfly
• All 12 songs debuted on the Billboard Hot 100, occupying the entire top five
• Won Best Rap Album at the 68th Grammy Awards; nominated for Album of the Year
• Won Album of the Year at the 2025 BET Awards

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Trivia

• The Billboard Hot 100 debut put all 12 songs on the chart, filling the top five at once.
• Lamar is only the fifth artist to hold the top spots that way, after Ariana Grande, Swift, Drake, and the Beatles.
• After the Super Bowl LIX halftime show, the album returned to number one on the Billboard 200 chart dated 22 February 2025.
• A widely shared clip of Lamar yelling Mustard's name in TV Off has become an Internet meme.
• Lamar and SZA announced the Grand National Tour on 3 December 2024 to support the album.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

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