With basically no warning, Kendrick Lamar released his new album, GNX, on Friday, and he caught everybody’s attention from the jump. On the album’s first song, “Wacced Out Murals,” Lamar mentions three veteran rappers by name, and each has responded to the name-checks, as Stereogum notes.
First, Lamar raps, “Used to bump Tha Carter III, I held my Rollie chain proud/Irony, I think my hard work let Lil Wayne down,” and that led Lil Wayne to post on X, “Man wtf I do?!” He continued, “I just be chillin & dey still kome 4 my head. Let’s not take kindness for weakness. Let this giant sleep. I beg u all. No one really wants destruction,not even me but I shall destroy if disturbed. On me. Love.”
Next, Lamar says, “Snoop posted ‘Taylor Made,’ I prayed it was the edibles/I couldn’t believe it, it was only right for me to let it go.” Snoop Dogg—who responded, in April, to Drake’s “Taylor Made Freestyle” with some incredulity—took Lamar’s lyrics in stride, writing on X, “K dot new album GNX 💥🔥🔥🔥🔥🎤🎤🎤🎤🎤 It was the edibles 🤦🏾 😆👊🏿 west west king 🔥🎶💫.”
Lastly, Lamar was more reverent of Nas on “Wacced Out Murals,” rapping, “Won the Super Bowl and Nas the only one congratulate me.” Nas responded today, “Always inspired by my brother KL. Keeping the essence of this shit alive and at the forefront. Salute King!”
There is one more musician who has a lot to say about GNX despite not being mentioned anywhere on the album, and that is Father John Misty, who, somehow, has, more or less, the same album release schedule as Lamar. After some posts on X (“not now I’m furiously scribbling my seeming response to,” “there goes my #1”), Father John Misty took things a step further with a “diss track.” It’s not really a diss song, but “God’s Trash,” which was recently featured on a Bandcamp-exclusive live album. But that hasn’t stopped Father John Misty from playfully framing it as a Lamar retort. Find his “diss” on Instagram.
