Kendrick Lamar surprises with new album ‘GNX’

LOS ANGELES (AP):

Kendrick Lamar gave music listeners an early holiday present Friday with the surprise drop of a new album. The Grammy winner’s 12-track GNX is the rapper’s first release since 2022’s Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers and his sixth studio album overall. It also comes just months after his rap battle with Drake.

The rapper will also headline February’s Apple Music Super Bowl Halftime Show in New Orleans.

Lamar, 37, has experienced massive success since his début album good kid, m.A.A.d city in 2012. Since then, he’s accumulated 17 Grammy wins and became the first non-classical, non-jazz musician to win a Pulitzer Prize for his 2017 album DAMN.

The surprise release caps a big year for Lamar, who is featured on the song Like That with Future and Metro Boomin – a track that spent three weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 this year. He also scored another hit with Not Like Us, a track emanating from the Drake feud.