Noire Notes VIII

A Fan Theory About Kendrick Lamar’s GNX

Dec 01, 2024

“My pops put me on to rap. When I was born, I came home from the hospital in an ’87 Buick Regal while my pops was bumping Big Daddy Kane…Sometimes I sit back and listen to hip-hop with him to see where my hip-hop roots come from.” – Kendrick Lamar (2012)

“If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants” – Isaac Newton

“F*** a double entendre, I want y’all to feel this s***”

Sometimes, the best writing is the simplest. There is an art form to being direct. It’s bold, it’s provocative, it gets the people going.

But, sometimes, it’s important to read between the lines too. To look for the subtext and find the deeper message that ties the whole concept together.

Being a rap fan can often involve staying up until the early hours in the morning, dissecting lyrics. It is a hip-hop version of playing Dungeons & Dragons where those in the know spend their free time making connections between the implicit and explicit: the double entendres, the sneak disses, the overlapping story lines and Easter egg references. Our over-active imaginations adding meaning to an album that will soon become engraved in our minds and hearts.

However, there is a downside to this as well, there is a possibility of reading too much into things. There is a possibility of falling victim to confirmation bias, not realizing that the ‘breadcrumbs’ you found are actually a figment of your imagination because, sometimes, the simplest answer is actually the correct one.

With that being said, here is my attempt to make sense of the overarching narrative and themes of Kendrick Lamar’s GNX. Enjoy!

GNX. Buick Regal’s Grand National Experiment – a line of cars released in 1987 (Kendrick Lamar’s birth year), a swansong to the “old-school American muscle car”, the “last of a dying breed”.

GNX. Gee-en-ex. Generation X – the generation that several of our parents (including Kendrick’s) come from.

Kendrick Lamar. A self-proclaimed “old-soul”, who had the nickname ‘man man’ growing up because of how he carried himself. A hip-hop traditionalist hellbent on keeping the genre alive.

What makes GNX stand out from the rest of Kendrick’s discography is how openly reverential it is to artists from previous generations. From quoting Biggie nearly verbatim on “tv off” to invoking the spirit and cadence of Tupac on “reincarnated”, Kendrick is actively establishing a musical legacy that spans at least a century of Black American music. Here is a list (in alphabetical order) of the artists that Kendrick references from the GNX era, the people responsible for the last golden age of hip-hop.

Biggie (“tv off”)

An interpolation of the following lines from Biggie’s “Kick In The Door”: “Ain’t no other king in this rap thing, they siblings / Nothing but my children, one shot, they disappearing”

DMX (“reincarnated”, connection pointed out by Ricky Denham)

On the third verse of “reincarnated”, Kendrick has a conversation with God. While he has done this before on tracks like “untitled 01” and “How Much A Dollar Cost”, this is the first time that Kendrick changes his voice in order to make a clear distinction between himself and God and show things from God’s perspective – an approach popularized by DMX on songs like “The Convo” and “Ready To Meet Him”.

On “The Heart Pt. 3”, Kendrick said that it was DMX’s debut album (It’s Dark And Hell Is Hot) that made him want to rap. With the benefit of hindsight, it’s not hard to understand why. Both men grew up in m.A.A.d cities but only one had the nerve to call themselves a ‘good kid’. Both men are well aware of their vices (namely wrath, lust and pride) but hope that these shortcomings won’t be the thing that stops them from seeing the promised land.

DMX and Kendrick’s approach to Christianity is one that acknowledges God’s mercy but also his fury. While DMX had to deal with “Damien”, Kendrick had to avoid the temptations of ‘Lucy’. The same ‘Lucy’ mentioned in Isaiah 14 of the Bible, the same ‘Lucy’ who made a Faustian bargain with bluesman Robert Johnson in the early 20^th Century, the same ‘Lucy’ who Kendrick hopes to break generational ties with on “reincarnated” so that he’s not damned to Hell for all eternity.

E-40 (“squabble up” music video)

From 0:38 to 0:50 of the “squabble up” music video, a gold watch can be seen hanging from the back wall which is, potentially, a nod to E-40’s In A Major Way album cover. The E-40 connection is notable for two reasons: (i) the NorCal, hyphy sound and flow that Kendrick adopts throughout various points of GNX and (ii) E-40 being chosen as the narrator for Kendrick Lamar’s Pop Out concert on Juneteenth.

Ice-T (“squabble up” music video, connection pointed out by Shadé (not) Sade)

Between 1:09 and 1:26 of the “squabble up” music video, a black woman dressed in a white bathing suit and red high heel pumps is seen facing the back wall holding a sawed-off shotgun. Her pose exudes a certain confidence and boldness, a power that hearkens back to Ice-T’s album of the same name. As Shadé highlights in her analysis of Ice-T’s album cover and its recreation in Kendrick’s music video, this is “not just a nod to Ice-T, it’s Kendrick doing what he always does: reaching back to carry the past into the present.”

Jay-Z (GNX’s album cover, connection pointed out by Ricky Denham)

From the minimalist design to the laid-back, almost triumphant pose on top of a luxury vehicle, Kendrick Lamar’s GNX album cover, arguably, pays homage to Jay-Z’s Vol. 2…Hard Knock Life.

Nas (“man at the garden”)

The only rapper to congratulate Kendrick Lamar after his Super Bowl announcement.

If good kid, m.A.A.d city was Kendrick’s Illmatic then GNX could, possibly, function as Kendrick’s Stillmatic. Nowhere is this parallel more obvious than on “man on the garden”, whose stripped-down beat and muted delivery is similar to Nas’ “One Mic” which, in turn, takes inspiration from Phil Collins’ “In The Air Tonight”.

However, on a deeper level (and similar to what Nas did on Stillmatic), GNX sees Kendrick position himself as the people’s champion, the cultural underdog who slayed the commercial giant with diss tracks so vicious that they’re already considered part of hip-hop canon.

Additionally, Kendrick employs a lot of lyrical and narrative techniques on GNX that Nas previously used in his own music, whether it’s the personification of an object and last-minute twist on “gloria” (see: “I Gave You Power”) or the imperial undertones that runs throughout “luther” (see: “If I Ruled The World”).

Therefore, it should be no surprise that Nas, once again, congratulated Kendrick when GNX dropped and heralded him as someone “keeping the essence of this s*** alive and on the forefront”.

Nate Dogg (“squabble up” music video)

Nate Dogg’s G-Funk Classics, Vol. 2 is the CD hanging from the chandelier in Kendrick’s “squabble up” music video. A possible clue to a theorized second / deluxe album coming soon from Kendrick Lamar, which is also hinted at in the following line from the song: “hit his turf and get cracking, double back like a deluxe”.

The Roots (“squabble up” music video, connection pointed out by Shadé (not) Sade)

As Questlove promptly acknowledged, the simple, green set design of Kendrick Lamar’s “squabble up” music video is a pointed tribute to The Roots’ “The Next Movement”.

However, similar to Kendrick’s mention of Lil Wayne and Snoop Dogg on “wacced out murals”, this might not be a shout-out made purely out of love given Questlove’s previous denunciation of the beef between Drake and Kendrick, going as far to call it confirmation that “hip hop is truly dead”.

With this context in mind, Kendrick Lamar’s visual mimicry of “The Next Movement” music video might be him subliminally stating that he represents the next movement of hip-hop and that Questlove / those willing to criticize his actions are simply ‘old muhf*****’ stuck in the past.

SWV (“heart pt. 6”)

A genius sample that helps Kendrick Lamar reclaim his long-running “heart” song series. SWV’s “Use Your Heart” was also produced by The Neptunes which might be a subtle way of Kendrick still “inherit[ing] the beef” on Pharrell’s behalf.

Tupac (“reincarnated” & GNX in general)

*“It’s all eyez on me and I’ma send it up to ‘Pac”*

Tupac Shakur: Kendrick Lamar’s lodestar, his guiding light.

If To Pimp A Butterfly was Kendrick’s tribute to Tupac’s Me Against The World then, according to Justin Hunte, GNX is Kendrick’s version of Tupac’s last album (The Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory).

Both albums have twelve tracks. Both albums feature rappers being called out directly (“wacced out murals” and “Against All Odds”). Both albums have their respective artist celebrating their hometown (“dodger blue” and “To Live & Die In L.A.”) and their most prized possession (“gloria” and “Me & My Girlfriend”).

Whether it’s a masterclass of marketing or a connection that borders on the supernatural, Kendrick Lamar seems to be the brain that Tupac sparked. From seeing him from afar when the original “California Love” video was being made to Tupac ‘visiting’ Kendrick in his dreams over fourteen years ago, Kendrick is dedicated to continuing the conversation that Tupac started. Not only does this include putting the West Coast on his back but also bringing a great vengeance and furious anger on those who try to poison and destroy his beloved community.

At the end of his life, Tupac was on a warpath. He had been branded a villain by a whole coast of America and fielded accusations of adding fuel to a fire that would both consume him and his enemies. We know better now but it seems that, with GNX and “reincarnated”, Kendrick is doing a counterfactual to this legacy. A thought experiment that asks ‘what if Tupac lived and was able to carry on with his mission?’.

Like Darth Vader and the car nicknamed after him, Kendrick is adopting the darkness and using it to ‘bring balance’ to the world. Like Jules Winnfield at the end of Pulp Fiction, Kendrick is trying to evolve from being the ‘tyranny’ to being the ‘shepherd’.

By sampling Tupac’s “Made N*****” and mirroring his flow on “reincarnated”, Kendrick is inhabiting the role of a fiery alchemist: burning the party to death so that a better foundation can be built on top of its ashes.

If Kendrick borrowed his momma’s van on good kid, m.A.A.d city to go through the most destructive and formative period of his life then he seems to be taking his dad’s GNX on a victory lap, replaying the sounds of the previous generation, a villainous-heel-turned-champion (word to Elijah) who survived against all odds and became a hometown hero.

At the end of the day, this could all be speculation but that’s the beauty of a rap theory: it starts off as fan-fiction until it becomes fact.

Further Listening

[1] Cole Cuchna & Femi Olutade, Kendrick Lamar Is Out For Blood On ‘GNX’, Dissect

[2] GNX Tapedeck