Kendrick Lamar drops new album “GNX”, to the surprise of everyone

The rapper's successful year continues, after winning his beef with Drake and securing the Super Bowl halftime show.

We now know more about what to expect from next year's Super Bowl halftime show. Kendrick Lamar, who is scheduled to perform at the primetime TV event of the year in February, just released a full-length surprise album to all music platforms on Friday, to the surprise of pretty much everyone.

Related: Lil Wayne says not being chosen for Super Bowl halftime show in New Orleans 'broke me'

The album, titled GNX, is Lamar's first full album since 2022's Mr. Morale and the Big Steppers. It also builds on the attention he garnered this year for his much-publicized feud with fellow rapper Drake. Widely seen as the best rappers of their generation, the two traded diss tracks back and forth over the summer until Lamar's "Not Like Us" secured a definitive victory.

As a result, Lamar now has a pretty unbeatable string of tweets this year. He's posted five times in 2024: Once for "Euphoria," his first Drake diss track; then for subsequent diss "Meet the Grahams"; then for "Not Like Us"; then his Super Bowl announcement video; and now the GNX release.

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"Not Like Us," which repeatedly accuses Drake of being a pedophile in increasingly clever ways, went number one on the Billboard Hot 100 (his first time as a solo artist), and probably helped Lamar secure the aforementioned Super Bowl slot.

In an interview with SZA last month, Lamar said "Not Like Us" stands for "the energy of who I am, the type of man I represent."

"This man has morals, he has values, he believes in something, he stands on something. He’s not pandering," Lamar said, when SZA asked him to elaborate. "He’s a man who can recognize his mistakes and not be afraid to share the mistakes and can dig deep down into fear-based ideologies or experiences to be able to express them without feeling like he’s less of a man."

Beyoncé defined the surprise album with her 2013 self-titled release, and subsequent years were filled with other artists trying to replicate that commercial and critical success. But as more music dominated Spotify and other streaming platforms, releases became more regulated again. Now, Lamar proves to us all that there's still room for surprises.