Kendrick Lamar drops surprise new album GNX

Kendrick Lamar surprised and delighted fans after releasing a new album with no warning.

The California rapper posted a link on social media to his new album GNX, which features 12 songs running to just over 44 minutes in total.

GNX is the 37-year-old’s sixth album and features SZA, Kamasi Washington and Mexican musician Deyra.

Jack Antonoff, Taylor Swift’s producer, is credited as a producer on all the tracks except one. There were rumours Swift herself would appear on the album but they proved incorrect.

Kendrick, one of the world’s most streamed music artists, currently boasts around 60.7 million monthly listeners on Spotify. He has won multiple Grammys and a Pulitzer Prize for Music.

Two weeks ago it emerged that Lamar had landed seven nominations for the 2025 Grammy Awards, with five for Not Like Us, the Drake diss track. The awards take place in February.

It will be a big month for Lamar who is to perform at the Super Bowl half-time show in New Orleans.

That sparked a controversy as fellow rapper Lil Wayne was hoping to perform at the event in his hometown. Lamar addresses this in the opening track of his new album, called wacced out murals.

It also references his much publicised feud with rapper Drake though doesn’t seem to escalate the war of words that has raged between them this year.