“I want the hood!” Kendrick Lamar speaks through GNX
Hip hop emphasizes rhythmic beat patterns and a spoken delivery over harmonic melodies and sung vocals. It drew inspiration from Deejay, a form of Reggae, but later it was replaced by Disco and Funk, it could enhance the genre’s urban appeal. Hip hop had many subgenres and version during the 1990s. In the 2010, it also inspired pop artist, and its radio-friendly production were spreading through pop artists as well.
Kendrick Lamar (born June 17, 1987, Compton, California, U.S.) is an American rapper who achieved critical and commercial success. Kendrick Lamar Duckworth grew up in a high-crime area of Compton, California. He began writing rhymes as a young teenager, and he released his first mixtape, Youngest Head Nigga in Charge (2003), under the name K. Dot. In November 2024 Lamar released GNX. In 2026 it won the Grammy for rap album of the year.
GNX: This album focuses on the black aesthetics, on their hood. It presents the lifestyle and the hardships of their neighbourhood, the physical, spiritual and economic reality. Hip hop has a struggle between the mainstream value and revolutionary aesthetics, that it evokes the question who is this music really for? “I want the black hood!” The album was named after the car Buick GNX, that shares the same values for instance authenticity, resilience and legacy. The car even beat Ferrari F40’s, on the same way as Kendrick tries to break through the normalized forms of hip hop industry.
Panna Ingula. (n.d.). hip hop [Pinterest Board]. Pinterest. https://pin.it/49ktyOFSN
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