Kendrick Lamar is gearing up to release a deluxe version of his sixth album ‘GNX’, according to Lefty Gunplay.
READ MORE: Kendrick Lamar – ‘GNX’ review: turning hatred into a teachable moment
Last Friday (November 22), the Compton rapper surprised the world with ‘GNX’ – his follow-up to the Grammy-winning ‘Mr Morales & The Big Steppers’ and his first release under his new label, pgLang.
The record features his former Top Dawg Entertainment labelmate SZA as well as production from Jack Antonoff, Kamasi Washington, Mustard, Terrace Martin and Sounwave.
Gunplay also appeared on the viral track ‘TV Off’ from the album and, in a recent interview with Bootleg Kev, he said he’s sure Lamar has “some stuff in the chamber”, adding: “I know he’s got a deluxe version coming out. He’s very secretive.”
He also revealed the “secretive” process behind his collaboration with the ‘Not Like Us’ star, for which he had to sign non-disclosure agreements before stepping into the studio and making “two, three songs” with Lamar.
Gunplay explained: “Everybody thought I was playing – I wasn’t. I almost blew it ’cause we signed NDAs and I couldn’t wait to tell everybody.”
He continued: “We had to sign NDAs and they were like, ‘You’re going [in the studio] with Kendrick’, and it didn’t hit me ’til he walked in there and gave me a hug. He’s been locked in with me since April and he said that I’m the missing piece that the West Coast needed […] He told me that we’re going to work again, for sure.”
‘GNX’ is already expected to debut at Number One on the Billboard 200 with 291,000 equivalent album units in its first week – marking it Lamar’s fifth consecutive chart-topping album. If the statistic is correct, it would also be the highest first-week sales of any rap record released this year, beating out Eminem’s ‘The Death of Slim Shady (Coup de Grâce)’ and Future and Metro Boomin’s ‘We Don’t Trust You’. Lamar featured on ‘Like That’ from the latter, which started his infamous high-profile rap battle with Drake this spring.
‘TV Off’ with Gunplay has sparked a new trend online. During the song’s beat change, Lamar screams “Mustard” as a nod to the track’s Grammy Award-nominated producer, and it has been used as a sound bite for many viral social media videos (via Today).
The LP came after Lamar dominated the charts with the anthemic ‘Not Like Us’. Originally a vicious diss track calling Drake a “certified paedophile” amid their feud, it became Lamar’s fourth US Number One and a unifying track for the West Coast.
NME awarded ‘GNX’ a full five stars, praising it for “turning hatred into a teachable moment”.
“After a year full of scathing diss tracks and unfiltered loathing, Lamar converts that energy into the purest emotion of all – love – while carrying the West Coast on his back,” it added.
In other news, Drake is suing Universal Music Group – the parent company of his label OVO Sound, and the distributor for pgLang – over the release of ‘Not Like Us’. He claimed they “artificially inflated” the song’s streaming numbers and knowingly allowed the release of a defamatory song targeted at one of their signees.
Lamar also shared the music video for ‘Squabble Up’, and Questlove publicly thanked the rapper for referencing The Roots in the visuals.
The post Kendrick Lamar might release a deluxe version of ‘GNX’ soon appeared first on NME.
