Kendrick Lamar, the rapper laureate and one of the music world’s least predictable stars, released a surprise new album, “GNX,” on Friday.
It is the sixth studio album by Lamar, 37, who won the Pulitzer Prize for Music in 2018 and, even before releasing the album, has been having a banner year. In the spring, two songs that came out of a rapid-fire diss-track war with Drake — “Like That” and “Not Like Us” — became some of his biggest hits in years. “Not Like Us” went to No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart and was nominated for both record and song of the year at the Grammys.
In February, Lamar is also set to headline the Super Bowl halftime show.
“GNX,” with 12 tracks, appeared on streaming services midday on Friday, with little accompanying information. The album’s cover art, and a one-minute teaser video that was released at the same time, revolve around an image of a black vintage muscle car. On the cover, Lamar slouches against the rear of the vehicle, and the video — with swelling strings and Lamar’s multi-tracked, rapid-fire vocals — show Lamar with the car in an empty, monumental space.
Among the songs is one titled “Heart Pt. 6,” the latest in a series of tracks with similar titles, which has become a Lamar signature. It is also an implicit rejoinder against Drake, who had released a diss track in May called “The Heart Part 6.”
“GNX” is Lamar’s first album after he left Top Dawg Entertainment (T.D.E.), the Los Angeles label that discovered him more than a decade ago. The copyright notice for “GNX” on streaming services credited the release to pgLang, the creative agency that Lamar started with his longtime collaborator, Dave Free. (The album was released “under exclusive license” to Interscope Records, a major label under the giant Universal Music Group.)
Lamar’s last album, “Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers,” was released in 2022 after a five-year wait.
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