Kendrick Lamar's rules for rap's new administration

Kendrick Lamar's rules for rap's new administration Having already won the year, the rapper aims on the surprise-released 'GNX' to change the state of play for everyone else toggle caption pgLang/Courtesy of the artist Winning isn't enough to satisfy Kendrick Lamar, our new undisputed pound-for-pound rap king, who unseated the streaming despot, presided over a summer of roasts, made a diss track a chart-topper and song of the year contender at the Grammys, and scored the Super Bowl as a prize for his ascension. Ironically, the two songs from beef season that set the tone for GNX are the only ones that weren't released officially: the Instagram exclusives "6:16 in LA" and "Watch the Party Die." It often bears the black Air Force energy of that stark "Watch the Party Die" cover art, leading Kendrick and company into flexing positions: See the staggering, swaggering procession "gnx," or the whirring whack-a-mole exercise "peekaboo," each full of preening, self-assured verses. At the center of the album, literally and figuratively, is "reincarnated," Kendrick's shot-for-shot recreation of a 2Pac song, which plays out a series of artistic rebirths across space and time leading to this one.