Discussion
GNX is the Stillmatic to GKMC's Illmatic
Today, one year ago, J. Cole released 7 Minute Drill.
I, unlike most people, actually kinda liked it; that being said, despite the fact that at that point I knew Cole only from features, and I knew Kendrick from even less, Cole said one thing that made me know Kendrick would dominate go on to win in such a one-sided fashion in the years to come.
For whatever reason, Cole decided to quote Jay-Z's "Takeover," and in doing so, whether or not he was comparing Kendrick with 01 Nas.
7 Months later, Kendrick dropped GNX, which I believe validated this comparison.
The Victory Lap. This one is the most obvious. Both albums come on the heel, winning an era-defining undisputed rap beef against arguably the biggest rap star of their time, and carry an accordingly celebratory energy to them. This is probably the best show in GNX's 'TV Off' and Stillmatic's 'Got Urself a Gun'
Building hip-hop from the ground up. While celebratory, both albums also contain themes of a grand restructuring of hip-hop. To quote Nas on 'Destroy and Rebuild,' "There's no more room for jealousy, we destroying and rebuilding. That means the cowards get out and the real niggas stay". Kendrick carries this same energy on 'Wacced Out Murals.' like Nas on 'Destroy and Rebuild,' he spends much of the song calling out people he seems to respect for behavior he deems unloyal or jealous genuinely. I also think the way Nas shoutout Slick Rick can be compared to the "Won the SuperBowl" line.
Reclaiming the throne. This is where J. quoting Jay comes into play. Illmatic was an instant classic, making Nas next in line to be the king of NY. But after his sophomore Album, It Was Written, another classic album, Nas's following few projects were not exactly of the same caliber, and some were even starting to claim that Nas had fallen off. This supposed falloff is what gave Jay Z the confidence to say the line that J. Cole would go on to quote. Ether and Stillmatic as a whole were essentially a response to the "1 hot album every 10-year average" allegations. Throughout the project, he asserts his title as King of NY both by directly asserting his claim in Ether and the aforementioned songs and by flexing his unparalleled abilities in songs like One Mic and Rewind. GKMC also was an instant classic that propelled Kendrick into the King of Rap conversations. Kendrick faced similar washed allegations after his hiatus and MMAtBS. And Just like Nas, he took out the biggest star prior to the album, then proceeded to make direct claims to the throne and rapped his ass off throughout
This is just for misc things that are kinda short, so they don't warrant their own bullet or are more about the beefs than the albums a. Man at The Garden. This speaks for itself.
b. Stillmatic shows love to Queensbridge and NYC in a way Nas hadn't done since Illmati;c likewise, GNX shows love to Compton and California in a way Kendrick hasn't since MaaD City
c. The way Ether dropped on Jay Z's birthday parrels how Kendrick was dropping in beef
d. I heard on a podcast once that Prodigy thought Nas was taking too long to respond to Takeover. Also, Ether and Euphoria both start with an E
e. GNX starts with a G and has a vehicle on the album cover, just like GKMC. Coincidence? yeah probably
f. There are more parrels, but I don't want to sit here all day listing them, so please feel free to reply with some.
g. I was gonna edit the GNX album cover to be in the style of Stillmatic (with a tiny Grand National in place of the Pigeon), but I don't even have the skills to make the jacket orange.
I have a theory that GNX is sort of a 'career reset' or homage to how far he's come since GKMC. I had other pieces to this theory that I've forgotten now, but the main piece was the van being his vehicle to learn about rap and find out who he is within the 'mad city' he grew up in and the GNX being him using his prior 'vehicle' to get him to the top of the game and he now has everything he wanted and now he has the GNX that he dreamed about while riding around in that van.
I think GNX brings the “Kendrick Lamar” story full circle. I’m not a conspiracy theorist fan so I don’t think it’s intentional but the way GKMC ends with his mom asking him to bring back her car. She also tells him to make music that they can step to. She ends the song by saying tell the black and brown kids from Compton his story of how he rose to be a positive person.
I feel like from GKMC to Damn Dot is trying (and realistically failing) to save the world by telling his story. I think he realized he failed, put the savior complex to side and told his story from the most honest perspective (Mr. Morale). After the album and the beef he was finally able to get back to what he originally intended which was making music for his parents to step too. But now it’s his car he driving
Also, peep how the cars are oriented on the gkmc and GNX album covers. The GNX is facing away from us, while Dot is looking directly at us. I get that what he’s doing is a classic rap thing where the rapper is leaning on their car, but I kinda see this as him looking back at his career and getting ready to move on to something else. If you peep his pre Super Bowl interview he does talk about wanting to be present in the now. So this imagery on the GNX album cover is representative of that mentality.
Without a doubt, Kendrick is entering his second phase with GNX in the same way Nas did on stillmatic.
Nas has been my #1 since It was written was popping (I was a little young to fully appreciate Illmatic when it first dropped as much as I did later, I am might be the first album I got my own cd for).
It’s beef centered, got big upped by Nas, man at the garden/one mic, it’s region centered (“This is a journey into the world's most largest And notorious projects, Queensbridge Listen while Nas saves his hood from the most cowardest rappers” - destroy and rebuild), has some of the most creative conceptual tracks in “Rewind” and “reincarnated”, both come on the heels of their least commercially successful and most critically panned albums, Nastradamus and Mr Morale & TBS, both being the first albums on their new label (ill will records and pglang respectively- note MMTBS was a joint production with TDE), I’m sure the list goes on but I’ll leave it at that and say I hope Kendrick continues through a second and third phase the way Nas has. He’s capable of it.
Also if you don’t think Nastradamus had potential (I love mr morale btw) I implore you to listen to MF Doom’s remix NASTRADOOMUS it’s the same lyrically but over more suitable beats.
Stillmatic is probably the most nostalgic album for me imo. i think i was only 11/12 when i found this disc sitting outside of my old neighborhood. i forgot how it happened but i ended up playing the songs on my family's old pc & it was never the same lol
Great take. GNX felt like a victory lap and a reset for Hip-Hip on the mainstream level, especially after defeating a Goliath like star that takes pride in dumbing down the culture. Although, it was a diss to Kendrick, even Aka-chipmunk said gimmick rappers are afraid to drop because of Kendrick (paraphrasing).
This is actually a great comparison. Stillmatic is one of my favorite Nas projects too. I also think Destroy and Rebuild has the sentiments of how K Dots is trying to do just that to hip hop culture. Thats also one of my favorite diss tracks from Nas. I also loved when I would hear Rule while watching Like Mike lol
Yeah totally except those Kenny albums couldn't hope to be the shadow of those Nas albums. Sorry but just stop with these dumb ass comparisons. Kenny is a poet, not a rapper. He couldn't make a good song to save his life. He makes deep af poetry though. Just stay in your lane.
lmao what? have u even listened to it was written? GNX is not even close to bring kendrick's best while it was written is arguably nas' best album. not to mention the sheer difference in quality when you actually listen to both albums
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u/PsychologicalFile771 1d ago
I have a theory that GNX is sort of a 'career reset' or homage to how far he's come since GKMC. I had other pieces to this theory that I've forgotten now, but the main piece was the van being his vehicle to learn about rap and find out who he is within the 'mad city' he grew up in and the GNX being him using his prior 'vehicle' to get him to the top of the game and he now has everything he wanted and now he has the GNX that he dreamed about while riding around in that van.