Kendrick Lamar just surprise-dropped a whole album

Kendrick Lamar has spent 2024 pulling off genuinely surprising, genuinely thrilling feats, and he just managed another big one. His new album, GNX, has just appeared on music platforms everywhere, with no prior promotion. While this release strategy has become a bit of a gimmick since Beyoncé really mainstreamed it in 2013, we’ve gotta admit, Lamar really managed to land this one in a genuinely thrilling fashion. We are still actively listening to this for the first time as we write this, but can confirm that SZA’s vocal appears on the track “Luther.” You can listen to the whole album here:

In case you need a refresher, the rapper has had one hell of a year, going all-in on a beef with Drake that left Lamar the undisputed winner. “Not Like Us” became one of the biggest songs of the summer and the entire year. In September, Lamar landed a slot headlining the Super Bowl halftime show, somewhat controversially; Lil Wayne was the preferred candidate by a vocal online contingent (that eventually included Wayne himself). Lamar addresses the controversy on the first song of this album. (Maybe he will again on the same album, but, hey, it only came out 20 minutes ago.) Regardless, he just got a whole bunch of new music to perform when he takes that stage in February, and we have plenty of new tracks to tide us over until then.