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By Maya Mackey
Kendrick is mad. Kendrick is self-righteous, and simultaneously not that self-aware, but inevitably still one of the last remaining defenders and orators of Black American culture in the Hip Hop landscape.
In his own words, “[He’s] what the culture (is) feeling,” because he’s lived the culture. He actually started from the bottom. He doesn’t have to pretend. Still, GNX is more of the same (disgust for Drake and current rap culture in general). It leaves me wondering, if he’s the great Messiah of Hip-Hop, where is he leading us to? Cause rap beef can’t be it forever.
As an interesting side note, it was announced this week that Drake has filed a lawsuit against United Music Group and Spotify, claiming that Payola (the process in which a record label or artist will pay radio stations and streaming platforms to advance their music) is the culprit behind the success of Kendrick’s Not Like Us. The scathing anthem catapulted Lamar back into the limelight after a brief hiatus following his last album, Mr.Morale and the Big Steppers. This further proves Kendrick’s point. The Canadian (Drake) is definitely “not like us.”
(Note: Some fans feel as though the Easter eggs in the snippet video that announced his surprise project mean this is a mixtape and an album is soon to follow. I agree with this theory and will be referring to GNX as a mixtape whereas other publications may refer to it as an album.)
It’s evident by the mixtape opener, Whacked Out Murals, that Kendrick is mad, but takes his hate in stride: “I’ll kill ‘em all before I let ‘em kill my joy.” He also details how, when it comes to Drake or anyone else that he’s fallen out with, forgiveness is not his thing. “Before I take a truce, I’ll take ‘em to hell with me,” he says
He also sounds apathetic and bitter in a way we’ve never heard before. In Man at the Garden, he bemoans about his worth, “I deserve it all!” He laments that people don’t seem to recognize or agree with that notion. He’s disappointed in Wayne. He’s disappointed in Snoop. In case it was ever unclear before, Kendrick is letting it be known with no uncertainty, that he feels it is his calling to preserve Hip Hop ethics—authenticity, loyalty and respect to the Ogs—and to remain a “real n*gga” despite all odds. What’s haunting is that his commitment to do the above has him chasing his own tail in self-righteousness.
Drake fans (and folks in the middle who didn’t pick a side between both Hip Hop juggernauts) were unfortunately right. Mr.Morale lowkey sees himself as a messiah even though he claims he’s not our savior on his last full album. Kendrick attempts to drop bars of wisdom onto young men on this mixtape, but it falls flat. He warns that “you better off to have one woman, everything tricky now,” as if remaining faithful to a woman is some profound nugget of wisdom. I guess maybe it is for men without strong father figures, but that’s some pretty elementary stuff for someone who simultaneously says he’s “here to guide you” on the same track. He also earnestly considers himself a gentleman (bless his heart) because he actually believes this to be true of himself, despite over a decade of the same misogyny and unfaithfulness found in the music of other male rappers.
But despite his egregiousness and audacity, he’s still the top dawg (no pun intended) putting on for L.A., for the Black American community and Hip Hop at large. Disgusted by the faking and shenanigans of certain players in the space, he’s committed to authenticity above all. Whereas Drake and Snoop cosigned on using artificial intelligence to generate and produce a post-humous Tupac on Taylor Made, one of many disses toward Lamar in the spring time, Kendrick instead samples a real Tupac Song (Made N—-s) to help him illustrate his current existential dilemma. They (Kendrick and fellow rappers) are not the same.
The mixtape as a whole honors California, with an emphasis on L.A. of course, with its signature West Coast beats, mostly produced by Jack Antanoff and Sounwave. He’s also unabashed to use exclusively L.A. lingo like “squabble up”, dismissing transplants who say they “hate L.A. but don’t travel past the 10 (freeway),” and honoring our robust Chicano community by sampling Deyra Bererra’s Mariachi-styled vocals (in Spanish of course) on three tracks. Every rapper will claim they love their city, but have we ever seen a rapper actually prove it to the level Kendrick has? I ain’t seen it!
Kendrick Lamar continues to be a complicated, messy and brilliant man who’s darn near willing to die for Black Culture and preserving its authenticity. We love him for it, as we anxiously await Act III!
