Here’s the Car Kendrick Lamar’s ‘GNX’ Is Named After

Kendrick Lamar’s new surprise project, GNX is here and his love for a specific car has come full circle.

GNX was released on Friday, Nov. 22, and it didn’t take long for fans to see where Kendrick drew inspiration from. The project’s title shares the name of the Buick model that was released in 1987, and the cover art shows Kendrick leaning against the trunk of the car that the Compton native has a deep connection with.

In a 2012 interview with Complex K Dot revealed his father drove him home from the hospital in the parent model of the GNX, a Buick Regal. Lamar was also born in 1987, when Buick released the Regal and the GNX.

“When I was born, I came home from the hospital in an ’87 Buick Regal while my pops were bumping Big Daddy Kane,” Kendrick said.

Buick released the GNX as part of the company’s plan to showcase their success in NASCAR at the time. In addition to the GNX, which had limited production, Buick released two other models to expand the Regal into a full model line: the Grand National and Regal T-Type.

Kendrick took on Drake last spring in the latest hip-hop beef to rock the culture, and he may have taken another shot at his longtime rival. Tashfiq Patwary, marketing director at EMPIRE, confirmed the album was named after the car in a tweet highlighting how fast it is and how the Grand National model defeated a Ferrari F40 in a race.

“Kendrick named his album after one of the hardest cars of all time, the 1987 Buick GNX, The Grand National GNX also beat the Ferrari in the quarter-mile run by 0.3 seconds. The only car that was able to challenge the GNX at the time was the Lamborghini Countach,” Patwary wrote.

Enzo Ferrari, the founder of the Ferrari racing team and car company, was also known as “il Drake,” a nickname given by his British rivals, and he won 17 world championships with his team. Drake also had an inflatable yellow Ferrari floating around during one of his tours, and he rapped in front of one in the music videos for “Jumbotron Shit Poppin.”

In March, Kendrick showed fans he purchased a GNX in a post on his Instagram burner account, @jojoruski. He also advised his followers that “finding” a GNX is the best thing to do when things are a little off.

“A good ol saying can snap you back into reality sometimes. but in the moment of confusion, the best thing you can do is find a gnx,” he wrote.

GNX comes with 12 tracks across 44 minutes and serves as Kendrick’s first album to be released exclusively through pgLang and Interscope Records since departing from Top Dawg Entertainment. Jack Antonoff and Sounwave handled production while guest features include AzChike, Deyra Barrera, Dody 6, Hitta J3, Ink, Kamasi Washington, Peysoh, Roddy Ricch, Sam Dew, Siete, SZA, Wallie The Sensei, and Young Threat. Check it out below.