Without warning on Friday, Nov. 22, Kendrick Lamar surprise-released his sixth album, GNX. Featuring vocals from SZA and production from “Not Like Us” producer Mustard, alongside Sounwave and Jack Antonoff (another shock) among others, the 12-song album clocks in at just under 45 minutes.
“You know what’s crazy? It was a surprise for me, just like it was a surprise for everybody else,” says Mustard. “I had been thinking maybe it’s going to come at the top of the year, maybe it’s going to come around the Super Bowl or whatever. I’m in the gym working out today and I see him post a snippet of a song and I’m like, ‘Oh shit, this shit gonna come probably next week,’ I’m thinking Thanksgiving when everybody’s in the house together. 10 minutes later, the album is out.”
“TV Off” – one of the tracks Mustard co-produced (along with Sean Momberger, Sounwave, Antonoff and Kamasi Washington) emerged as an early GNX standout, in part because of its close relation to Lamar’s knock-out smash “Not Like Us,” which Mustard says was “definitely intentional.” And much like the album arriving without warning, Mustard had yet to hear the finished version of the song until today.
“What did I think?” he says, his energy palpable. “I was losing it. I mean, I already knew I do me with the beats, you know? But Kendrick is the best rapper, bro. Like, of all time. I think he’s one of the best.”
Mustard says he made “TV Off” around the same time as “Not Like Us,” but clarifies that the two halves of “TV” were made at different times from two different beats. “That first half was definitely in the same realm of me making things like ‘Not Like Us,’” he says, “and the second half was a beat that I was doing for this other theatrical album that I’m trying to make. And I was just like, “Man, let me see if Kendrick would like this.” I sent it to him and he was like, ‘This is crazy.’”
Even crazier? The several-second-long transition between the two sections when Lamar yells with gusto “Mustaaaaaaaaard.” As Mustard himself says, “That s— was elite. So fire. Like, is that a new tag? I can’t wait to perform that song and just hear people just saying that, ‘cause everybody’s going to say that like crazy.”
As for “Hey Now,” (another of his co-produced tracks), Mustard made that beat 3-4 years ago by himself before Sounwave and Antonoff added to it. “I just knew if I got the right person to do it, it would be perfect. I sent it to [Kendrick] and he got it right away and was like, “All right, I know what to do.”
“I got this thing where I’m trying to send [Kendrick] something every day,” he continues. “I’m always [wondering] what’s next. You know, this morning I’m texting like, ‘What do you need from me?’ Whatever it is, I’m on board and I’m ready to just keep my head down and keep working.”
