Staff Picks: Every Kendrick Lamar Album, Ranked

It’s been a busy year for Kendrick Lamar. After disrupting the rap game in March with a breakout verse on the Hot 100 No. 1 song “Like That” from Future and Metro Boomin’s We Don’t Trust You, Lamar went on one of the most impressive runs in rap history. The verse heard around the world took a direct shot at Drake and started what would turn out to be a months-long battle, which saw both artists deliver incredible diss tracks. But the lyrical back-and-forth came to a head during a weekend in May when Drake dropped “Family Matters” a few hours before Kendrick responded with the dark and meditative “Meet the Grahams” — and then surprised everyone with the DJ Mustard-produced West Coast anthem “Not Like Us.” Even though Drake sent one last salvo in the form of “The Heart Part 6,” for all those keeping score at home the beef was all but over.

Most years, that would be enough for the elusive Compton rapper, but this year he had something to prove. After releasing the video for “Not Like Us,” Kendrick threw a legendary West Coast-centric concert called “The Pop Out” where he ran through a number of his hits and his most recent diss tracks. Streamed on Amazon Prime, the show felt like a coronation of sorts. If that wasn’t enough, he was then picked to perform at the Super Bowl LIX Half Time show in February. For those who didn’t believe Kendrick was deserving of the hip-hop throne, it became exponentially tougher to argue otherwise.

After the Super Bowl announcement, everyone knew Kendrick was gearing up to release a new album —the only question was when. Many thought it’d happen right before the big game. Pg. Lang had other ideas as they dropped Kendrick’s newest full-length, GNX, the week before Thanksgiving. Produced primarily by Sounwave and Jack Antonoff with Mustard supplying the perfect follow-up to “Not Like Us” (with “TV Off”), GNX debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 with seven tracks debuting in the top 10 on the Hot 100. It is, by all accounts, another unmitigated success — even if some fans believe it’s just a sampler before a more robust offering is released ahead of his just announced 2025 stadium tour with SZA.

Now that we’ve had time to sit with it, we think we know how it ranks among Kendrick’s other albums. In a catalog full of classics, it’s a tough ranking to put together. But we’ve landed somewhere sensible. Take a look below and let us know how you’d rank ‘em.