For the guest rappers on ‘GNX,’ recording with Kendrick Lamar means ‘You’ve got to be a student.’
A few months ago, the Compton rapper Siete7x was up in the Bay Area shooting a music video. Around 4 a.m., he got a call from mutual friend of Kendrick Lamar’s who told Siete to drop whatever he was doing and get to Conway Studios in Los Angeles. Now.
“He was like ‘Kendrick wants you to pull up.’ At first I didn’t believe him,” Siete said. “But me and my manager, we got in the car and drove six hours right back to L.A.”
That night drive turned into a session that got Siete lines on “dodger blue,” a soulful hometown-pride anthem and a local favorite on Lamar’s surprise-release “GNX.”
That album was a rich text of West Coast hip-hop history and invention, imbued with the venom of his recent feud with Drake. In just a week, it’s spun off singles like “squabble up” and “tv off” that have redefined the year in rap, just in time for Lamar’s Super Bowl appearance next year.
But “GNX” is full of cameos from emerging SoCal acts, who Lamar sees as crucial voices right now. The cast of guests — hailing from Compton to Baldwin Park and beyond — proves his ear is still close to the ground. For those local artists that got sudden shine from it, “GNX” feels like a piece of history — and a chance to show what they’re capable of.
“I feel like this album will be a classic for a new generation,” Siete said. “Kendrick gave me a shot. Now I’m even more motivated to show the world what I can really do.”
In the hours after “GNX” dropped last week, fans combed through the lyrics for new twists in the Drake war, and parsed its samples of Tupac Shakur, Luther Vandross and SWV.
While SZA and saxophonist Kamasi Washington are the only cameos on “GNX” that pop music fans are likely to recognize, the album is a comprehensive roster of SoCal scene-beloved veterans like Wallie the Sensei, AzChike and Hitta J3, and fast-rising local acts like Dody6 and YoungThreat.
When Lamar insists on “dodger blue” that you can’t “say you hate L.A. when you don’t travel past the 10,” these are the artists you’re missing if you don’t venture down.
“GNX” kicks off with evocative mariachi vocals from singer Deyra Barrera, whom Lamar discovered when she performed at Dodger Stadium. But he also nodded towards the city’s Latino rap scene, with guest bars from Maywood’s Peysoh on the album’s title track.
When Peysoh got the call, he said “I was chilling at my house, half asleep, when [Lamar] threw us on a FaceTime and was like ‘I need you later today.’ Even after the surprise release of the album, Peysoh said he was still a little dazed from the experience. Earlier this year, he’d finished a three-year stint in jail. To go from that to recording on a Kendrick album was head-spinning. “I’d been counted out and blackballed, and now it’s happening just like I told y’all,” Peysoh said.
Peysoh, known for the noirish viral hit “6 Block,” has a distinct Chicano tang to his voice, unmistakable in any mix. When Peysoh got to the studio, Kendrick played the tricky, technically challenging beat that became “gnx.” Peysoh got the first verse, and the two swapped lines in the chorus. “Lеt ‘em claim it, we the ones who really pop, bro,” he raps. “Opps know, let ‘em piss him off and it’s a flop show.”
“It’s so dope that he embraced the culture and did right by us,” Peysoh said. “There’s a lot of controversy with Mexican rap, but he knows what he wants and he had a blueprint. He’s a legend and I’m so grateful for the chance he gave to me to prove my keep.”
For the younger acts he called into the studio, “GNX” was a rare glimpse behind the curtain to see how Lamar works. Few rappers get to write alongside a Pulitzer Prize-winning lyricist.
“I didn’t know what I signed on for,” Siete said. “It was a real different process for how to record, definitely leveled up from what I’m used to. I had to record certain bars five times to have different options in how I’m coming in with my energy, different cadences that were out of my element to make it hit better.”
“Kendrick came with crazy ideas,” Siete added. “You’ve just got to be a student sometimes.”
Even for the artists with very brief cameos, simply getting your name in the credits of a Lamar album is a life-altering vouch.
Lefty Gunplay, a relentless MC from the atypical rap neighborhood of Baldwin Park, has perhaps the shortest cameo on the record — repeating a four-word outro on the smash hit “tv off” in his trademark rasp.
While the song’s memes were all about screaming “MUSTAAAARD,” listeners will leave the track wondering about the guy taunting “Crazy, scary, spooky, hilarious.”
“Four words was all it took to have the best song,” he laughed. “All the other artists Kendrick features are real street dudes, and I’m so glad I got to be a part of that class. He sees something in us — he ran the play and gave me the alleyoop.”
Lefty Gunplay served nine years in Pelican Bay State Penitentiary, released just last year. For the guests whose careers got a shock of new fame on “GNX,” they’re hitting the pavement to make the most of it.
Many said they recorded more music with Kendrick beyond what appears on “GNX,” and while nobody would speak about their plans for it, it’s clear that Lamar has much more in the tank.
In the weeks to come, Peysoh has a gig at the Teragram Ballroom on Sunday, likely be mobbed by new fans from “GNX.” Siete7x has a new album, “Stucc in the Hole,” out Dec. 6. And in a masterstroke of lucky timing, Lefty Gunplay dropped his new album, “Most Valuable Gangbanger,” the same day the “GNX” landed.
“It’s gonna open every door for me. I know I’m not the best lyrically yet, but every day I’m getting better and I’ve got to capitalize on this moment,” Lefty Gunplay said. He’s still getting used to the idea that he’s already part of L.A. rap history.
“It still hasn’t hit me yet,” he laughed. “I’m on a Kendrick album. What a trip.”
