GNX arrived on November 22, 2024 with no warning, no rollout, no countdown. Kendrick Lamar just decided it was time. His first studio album since 2022’s Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers and released through pgLang and Interscope, it dropped at noon on a Friday and immediately dissolved whatever anyone else had been thinking about. That’s a particular kind of power, and also a particular kind of personality.
“wacced out murals” is a song about the cost of being right: the industry resentment, the hollow congratulations, the alliances that turned out to be fake. Neither dressed up or explained.
In September 2024, a mural of Kendrick painted at Compton’s Honduras Restaurant Mi Sabor was defaced by an OVO supporter after the release of the “Not Like Us” video. Kendrick’s eyes X’d out, Drake’s brand tagged across it. The song opens there, with that specific indignity, and then immediately shrugs it off. “That energy’ll make you move to Europe, but it’s regular for me.” Whatever you were expecting as the opening posture of a post-Drake, post-Super Bowl Kendrick Lamar album, weary boredom probably wasn’t it.
Produced by Sounwave, the track is built sparse. Deyra Barrera opens with Spanish vocals: “Siento aquí tu presencia / La noche de anoche / Y nos ponemos a llorar,” translating loosely as “I feel your presence here / Last night / And we start to cry.” The mariachi tone isn’t decoration. It places this record in West Coast cultural geography before Kendrick says a word. Attentive listeners have clocked that the synth bass bears similarities to Nipsey Hussle’s “Last Time That I Checc’d,” both titles using “cc” rather than “ck.” Whether that’s Sounwave paying homage or a striking coincidence is genuinely unclear. What’s less unclear is that Kendrick has said publicly he’d trade every peer he has to have Nipsey back. Draw your own line between those two things.
The first verse moves with something close to cold fury, though Kendrick keeps the temperature controlled enough that you might miss how serious it is on a first pass. “I’ll kill ’em all before I let ’em kill my joy” reads almost casually until you sit with it. Then: “My blick first, then God got me.” The sequencing matters. Act first, seek absolution after. He’s watching the industry perform loyalty, handing out compliments with just enough edge to pass as shade. “I watch ’em pander with them back-handed compliments / Put they head on a Cuban link as a monument.” The second line is more violent than it initially sounds.
The chorus is essentially a set of rules, and it’s interesting that Kendrick frames it that way, as guidance rather than declaration. “Know you a god even when they say you ain’t.” “If they say it’s love, you’ve been lied to.” It’s addressed to someone else, which gives it a strange quality, simultaneously personal testimony and public advice. The person he’s instructing might be younger artists, might be himself at an earlier point, might be nobody in particular.
Riding in his GNX, the Buick Grand National Experiment, a 1987 muscle car rare enough to be a statement just by existing, with Anita Baker in the tape deck. The album takes its name from the car, and the car earns that honour because it carries a specific kind of weight: success measured in something that can’t be bought at scale, something that means something in Compton and nothing in a label meeting. “Ridin’ in my GNX with Anita Baker in the tape deck, it’s gon’ be a sweet love.” Before he starts taking anyone apart, he places himself in his own world first.
The Lil Wayne section is probably the most genuinely conflicted writing on the track. Wayne had been publicly vocal about not being chosen to headline the 2025 Super Bowl halftime show in his hometown of New Orleans, a wound that was personal in ways the press coverage only partially captured. Kendrick’s lines don’t read like a diss, exactly. “Used to bump Tha Carter III, I held my Rollie chain proud / Irony, I think my hard work let Lil Wayne down.” There’s something uncomfortable in that irony that Kendrick doesn’t try to resolve. Wayne’s X post shortly after, “Man wtf I do?! I just be chillin & dey still kome 4 my head… Let this giant sleep,” confirmed the lines had registered. Whether Kendrick wanted it to go that way is another question the song doesn’t answer.
Snoop’s situation gets one couplet and that’s probably right given the specifics. Drake released “Taylor Made Freestyle” using AI-generated vocals of Tupac and Snoop; Snoop posted it. Kendrick: “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.” After GNX dropped, Snoop posted: “K dot new album GNX… It was the edibles.” Which is funny, and also sidesteps the actual question of why he posted the track in the first place. Kendrick seems to have decided to leave it there. For now, anyway.
“Won the Super Bowl and Nas the only one congratulate me.” Nas later confirmed the support publicly on Instagram. The line works not because of what Nas did but because of the list of people who apparently didn’t.
“Fuck a double entendre, I want y’all to feel this shit.” For an artist whose critical reputation is built substantially on layered allegory and conceptual architecture, this is a notable thing to say. Whether he fully means it or whether this is itself a kind of sophisticated move is hard to settle. The track that follows it doesn’t exactly abandon craft. But the aggression in the delivery suggests he’s at least partially sincere about prioritising impact over intricacy right now.
The third verse is where things get politically specific in ways that require some context. The Bitcoin and bank transaction lines connect to widely circulated but unconfirmed reports that Drake put money on the streets in Compton seeking damaging information on Kendrick, with an alleged associate named Coolee Bravo claiming publicly that he pocketed the payment and fed Drake false intel. None of this has been verified. Kendrick doesn’t confirm it directly. What he says is: “Before I take a truce, I’ll take ’em to Hell with me.” The Jay-Z references feel pointed without being explicit. “Y’all stay politically correct, I’ma do what I did” is the kind of line that could be aimed at several people simultaneously, which is probably the point. The severance line, “Tell ’em quit they job and pay the real niggas they severance,” echoes Beanie Sigel’s long-running public grievances about his treatment at Roc-A-Fella, a dispute that has never really gone away regardless of how many times reconciliation has been announced.
The Diddy line is redacted in the audio itself. “Cackling about—” and then nothing. At the time of release, Diddy was awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges. The gap in the recording is doing something the completed sentence probably couldn’t. “You better off to have one woman, everything tricky right now” follows, and the dryness in that, given everything surrounding it, is hard to overstate.
“Don’t let no white comedian talk about no Black woman, that’s law.” Andrew Schulz, who had supposedly made inflammatory comments about Black women on his podcast in August 2024, was widely identified as the target. Schulz responded on his own podcast in terms so aggressive they generated significant backlash, which may or may not have been the outcome Kendrick was hoping for, but certainly wasn’t a refutation of the original point.
The song circles back to the mural. “Whacked the murals out, but it ain’t no legends if my legend ends.” The defacement in Compton was supposed to be an act of erasure. Six minutes of this and it looks more like an act of authorship. Kendrick took that image and built an album opener around it.
“Old soul, bitch, I probably built them pyramids.” The word “probably” is doing something in there, a sliver of distance between the claim and the man making it. Whether that’s genuine modesty or rhetorical calculation or both is one of those questions the song leaves open. Which, given ten minutes of otherwise unsparing directness, feels intentional.
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Kendrick Lamar wacced out murals Lyrics
Intro: Deyra Barrera
Siento aquí tu presencia
La noche de anoche
Y nos ponemos a llorar
Verse 1
Yesterday, somebody whacked out my mural
That energy’ll make you niggas move to Europe
But it’s regular for me, yeah, that’s for sure
The love and hate is definite without a cure
All this talk is bitch-made, that’s on my Lord
I’ll kill ’em all before I let ’em kill my joy
I done been through it all, what you endure?
It used to be fuck that nigga, but now it’s plural
Fuck everybody, that’s on my body
My blick first, then God got me
I watch ’em pandеr with them back-handed compliments
Put thеy head on a Cuban link as a monument
I paid homage and I always mind my business
I made the—
I never lost who I am for a rap image
It’s motivation if you wonder how I did it
Chorus
Yeah, nigga, go and up your rank
Know you a god even when they say you ain’t
Yeah, nigga, keep your feelings out the way
Never let no one put smut up on your name
Yeah, nigga, keep your head down and work like I do
But understand everybody ain’t gon’ like you
Yeah, nigga, if they say it’s love, you’ve been lied to
A couple rules of engagements, I’ma guide you
Post-Chorus: Deyra Barrera
Que refleja en tu mirada
La noche, tú y yo
Verse 2
Ridin’ in my GNX with Anita Baker in the tape deck, it’s gon’ be a sweet love
Fuck apologies, I wanna see y’all geeked up
Don’t acknowledge me, then maybe we can say it’s fair
Take it to the internet and I’ma take it there
Miss my uncle Lil’ Mane, he said that he would kill me if I didn’t make it
Now I’m possessed by a spirit and they can’t take it
Used to bump Tha Carter III, I held my Rollie chain proud
Irony, I think my hard work let Lil Wayne down
Whatever, though, call me crazy, everybody questionable
Turn me to an eskimo, I drew the line and decimals
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
Won the Super Bowl and Nas the only one congratulate me
All these niggas agitated, I’m just glad they showin’ they faces
Quite frankly, plenty artists, but they outdated
Old-ass flows, tryna convince me that you they favorite
This is not for lyricists, I swear it’s not the sentiments
Fuck a double entendre, I want y’all to feel this shit
Old soul, bitch, I probably built them pyramids
Ducking strays when I rap battled in the Nickersons
Where you from? Not where I’m from, we all indigenous
Against all odds, I squabbled up for them dividends
Against all odds, I showed up as a gentleman
I done lost plenty friends, sixteen to be specific
Put that on my kids’ children, we gon’ see the future first
They like, “Dot big trippin,” I just want what I deserve
What bridge they done burnt? All of them, it’s over with
I’m doin’ what COVID did, they’ll never get over it
Chorus
Yeah, nigga, go and up your rank
Know you a god even when they say you ain’t
Yeah, nigga, keep your feelings out the way
Never let no one put smut up on your name
Yeah, nigga, keep your head down and work like I do
But understand everybody ain’t gon’ like you
Yeah, nigga, if they say it’s love, you’ve been lied to
A couple rules of engagements, here to guide you
Verse 3
Niggas from my city couldn’t entertain old boy
Promisin’ bank transactions and even bitcoin
I never peaced it up, that shit don’t sit well with me
Before I take a truce, I’ll take ’em to Hell with me
If that money got in the hands of a crash dummy
Could jeopardize my family and burden the ones who love me
Niggas mad ’cause I decided not to pretend
Y’all stay politically correct, I’ma do what I did
Ain’t no sympathy here, this shit’s hilarious
It’s a lot of opinions, but no power to carry it
2025, they still movin’ on some scary shit
Tell ’em quit they job and pay the real niggas they severance
Don’t insult my intelligence, I’m not just for the television
Teleport to Bullets Road and dig up all my relatives
Okay, nigga, let’s settle it, these niggas been fake loyal
Since y’all pandering to choose a side, let me do it for you
Okay, fuck your hip-hop, I watched the party just die
Niggas cackling about— while all of y’all is on trial
Niggas thought that I was antisocial when I stayed inside of my house
You better off to have one woman, everything tricky right now
You niggas live in denial
Ayy, fuck anybody empathetic to the other side, I vow
A bitch nigga love bitch niggas, they exist with ’em in style
Exterminate ’em right now
Make Katt Williams and them proud, the truth ’bout to get loud
No juice inside of my cup, I sober up and knock ’em all off
Don’t let no white comedian talk about no Black woman, that’s law
I know propaganda work for them, and fuck whoever that’s close to them
The niggas that coon, the niggas that bein’ groomed, slide on both of them
You ever ate Cap’n Crunch and proceeded to pour water in it?
Pulled over by the law, you ridin’ dirty, so you can’t argue with ’em?
Then make it to be a star, bare your soul and put your heart up in it?
Well, I did
Whacked the murals out, but it ain’t no legends if my legend ends
