Kendrick Lamar’s ‘GNX’ Is the First Rap Album to Hit Major 2025 Milestone

Continuing his reign of terror over Drake’s entire existence, Kendrick Lamar just hit a major 2025 milestone—his 2024 album GNX is the first rap project to sell over 1 million album-equivalent units in the United States.

Released on Nov. 22, GNX is Lamar’s sixth studio album overall but his first with PGLang/Interscope, following his exit from Top Dawg Entertainment and Aftermath Entertainment.

Jack Antonoff and Sounwave executive produced the album, which features appearances from artists such as SZA, Roddy Ricch, and Kamasi Washington. Additional guests include AzChike, Deyra Barrera, Dody 6, Hitta J3, Ink, Peysoh, Sam Dew, Siete, Wallie The Sensei, and Young Threat.

.@kendricklamar's 'GNX' becomes the first hip-hop album to sell over 1 million units in the US in 2025. pic.twitter.com/mRGuZNzFjP

— chart data (@chartdata) March 23, 2025

Kendrick Lamar Dropped GNX After Beefing with Drake

Kendrick Lamar dropped GNX several months after getting into a brutal rap beef with Drake, which started when Kendrick took some shots at Drake and J. Cole on Future and Metro Boomin’s song “Like That.”

After J. Cole bowed out of the beef, Kendrick and Drake began trading shots back and forth over several diss tracks, one of which was the enormously popular song “Not Like Us.”

The track went on to be one of the biggest songs of 2024 and won every single Grammy it was nominated for at this year’s ceremony. Kendrick also performed the song during the 2025 Super Bowl Halftime Show.

Drake Beef Was Just ‘Sport’

“My intent from day one was to keep the nature of it as a sport,” Kung-Fu Kenny later explained during a new Apple Music interview, discussing his decision to engage in the beef. “I don’t care how motherfuckers look at it as far as like a collaborative effort. That’s cool too, but I love when artists grit they teeth.”

“I still watch battle raps, I still watch Smack URL, from Murda Mook to Lux to Tay Roc, my bro Daylyt. This always been the core definition of who I am,” he added. “It’s been that way since day one so I don’t think it was a thing for this year. It was always a continuum.”

Kendrick then offered, “What I will say about this year is that it was more from a space where I think a lot of people was putting rap to the back and you didn’t see that grit, you didn’t see that bite anymore.”