Beyond a few big features, 2025 has mostly been Kendrick Lamar’s year to flex all of the success of the previous summer’s Drake battle.
Kendrick Lamar dropped GNX almost a year ago, and a Super Bowl halftime show not long after ensured it would stick around for a while. But even with some huge rap projects from this year that are carrying the torch into 2026, it seems like folks are still spinning this West Coast homage like mad.
As caught by Rap on Instagram, the LP recently became the first hip-hop record to sell over 2 million album-equivalent units in 2025, and is reportedly the fifth highest-selling album of the year so far across all genres. Ironically enough, K.Dot was featured thrice on one of the runners-up on this list, Playboi Carti’s MUSIC.
Considering the smash success of “luther” with SZA as well as “tv off” with Lefty Gunplay, it’s no wonder that GNX as a whole continues to get play. Also, this news came at a pretty interesting milestone for the Drake battle as a whole, which this era mostly circles around. His UMG lawsuit is no more (unless an appeal to the dismissal goes through), and “K.Bots” everywhere rejoiced. Let’s see what happens now…
Kendrick Lamar Grammys
Regardless of where that narrative goes, Kendrick Lamar’s GNX could see even more success. It recently formed part of his extensive submissions for Grammy Award consideration next year. The ceremony takes place on Sunday, February 1 of next year, and the Recording Academy will announce their official Grammys nominations on Friday, November 7, 2025.
We shall see which nominations the Compton lyricist secures. Depending on what he potentially wins, he could become the most awarded hip-hop artist in Recording Academy history so far.
Elsewhere, Kendrick Lamar’s “Grand National” tour in South America recently wrapped up, and now he only has some Australia shows to look forward to later this year in December. The whole trek has by no means been perfect, but it was certainly an amazing and staggering experience overall that raked in a whole lot of cash.
With all this in mind, what’s next for the pgLang creative? We have no idea, but folks are clearly happy to bump what’s already out while we wait.
