Dissect podcast host Cole Cuchna explains why GNX is his "least favorite" Kendrick Lamar album

Dissect podcast’s Cole Cuchna was joined by The Ringer's Charles Holmes to discuss Kendrick Lamar's GNX and debate his best song in the episode released on April 15. While talking about the album, Cuchna said:

“This is his best project.. This is one of my favorite Kendrick Lamar.. Lot to process, I'll admit I mean I love GX. I still listen to it almost every day legitimately. I just want to hear it all the time so it might be his most replayable album.”

Talking about it, he then said:

“At least for me right now the most replay value of a Kendrick album, although with that said, it might be my least favorite Kendrick album..”

For context, Lamar's unexpected new album, GNX, was released on Friday, November 22. Around 17:00 GMT, the 12-track album was posted to his social media accounts. The album features contributions from Kamasi Washington and SZA, among others.

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Dissect podcast recently explored Kendrick Lamar’s GNX

Cuchna and Holmes further talked about Kendrick Lamar’s GNX and its background. They discussed the Kendrick-Drake diss tracks. Addressing Cuchna directly, Charles Holmes said:

“You're a way bigger Kendrick fan than me, and I can guarantee you I've listened to GNX probably more than you.. I listen to it every single day, I just play the songs.. There's a lot of songs I don't like on this album and they just wash over.. I like listening to them because they're good enough where I'm going to listen to the 12 tracks and I'm going to play it back..”

For the unversed, Kendrick Lamar released his sixth studio album, GNX, on November 22, 2024. The album, released unexpectedly by Interscope Records and PGLang, features several artist cameos, including SZA, YoungThreat, Lefty Gunplay, Dody6, Siete7x, Roddy Ricch, Wallie the Sensei, Hitta J3, AzChike, and Peysoh.

Discussing Kendrick Lamar’s collaboration with other artists, Holmes continued:

“How many times are we always begging for artists to give us the perfect 12 song record, right? No skips.. I think with streaming, we just saw the Playboi Carti album.. It's so easy to be like "Here are 30 songs.”

He added:

“And you're just like "Oh, I need a good 48 hours to play it all." But it's like within those 30 songs you're gonna get a hit. If you release 30 songs you're going to trip into one Kendrick.”

Here, Holmes seemingly referred to Lamar's alleged collaboration on Playboi Carti's I AM MUSIC. According to a report published on March 13 by Hot New Hip Hop, this would mark the first collaboration between Kendrick Lamar and Playboi Carti.

Carti had previously collaborated with Drake as well. which led many to speculate about his role in the ongoing conflict between Drizzy and Kendrick Lamar.

Meanwhile, speaking on the same topic and seemingly siding more with Lamar than Drake in the rap battle, Cuchna said that there are rumors that several of these songs were written in the month or two before their release, but most likely after the fight with Drake.

He further alleged that Drake’s records are reportedly about his celebrity status and give listeners an update of his situation in the industry, like a report card, and whether or not it is going right. On the other hand, Kendrick doesn't really do that. Kendrick’s album is thematic.

Cuchna then addressed how the battle affected Drake and Lamar’s respective tracks. He said:

“We want to avoid talking about Drake like this is in part a victory lap.. Maybe the biggest hip-hop beef that we've definitely experienced in our lifetime. So you can't detach this album from the battle…”

He continued:

“There's a clear kind of victory lap vibes going on. There's direct lines. I mean over and over almost every song mentions it alludes to it in some way.”

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Listeners can stream all episodes of the Dissect podcast, including this one, on YouTube via their official channel.