Mustard Reacts To Surprise Kendrick Lamar Album ‘GNX’

Without warning, on Friday, November 22, Kendrick Lamar released his sixth album. GNX. Featuring vocals from SZA and production from “Not Like Us” producer Mustard, along with Sounwave and Jack Antonoff (another shocker), among others, the 12-song album clocks in at just under 45 minutes.

“You know what’s crazy? It was a surprise to me, like it was a surprise to everybody,” Mustard says. “I thought maybe it would come at the top of the year, maybe it would come around the Super Bowl or whatever. I’m working out at the gym today and I see him post a snippet of a song and I’m like, ‘Oh shit, this shit’s probably coming next week,’ I think about Thanksgiving when everyone’s in the house together. 10 minutes later the album is out.”

“TV Off” – one of the tracks Mustard co-produced (along with Sean Momberger, Sounwave, Antonoff and Kamasi Washington) appeared as an early GNX standout, in part because of its close relation to Lamar’s knock-out smash “Not Like Us,” which Mustard says was “definitely intentional.” And just as the album arrived without warning, Mustard had yet to hear the finished version of the song until today.

“What was I thinking?” he says, his energy palpable. “I was about to lose it. I mean, I already knew I made beats, you know? But Kendrick’s the best rapper, bro. Like all time. I think he’s one of the best. ”

Mustard says he made “TV Off” around the same time as “Not Like Us”, but clarifies that the two halves of “TV” were made at different times from two different beats. “The first half was definitely in the same area where I was doing stuff like ‘Not Like Us,'” he says, “and the second half was a beat that I was making for this other theater album that I’m trying to make. And I thought just, “Man, let me see if Kendrick liked this.” I sent it to him, and he was like, ‘This is crazy.’”

Even crazier? The several-second transition between the two sections, when Lamar gleefully shouts “Mustaaaaaaaaard.” As Mustard himself says, “It was elite. So fire. Like, is that a new roof? I can’t wait to perform that song and just hear people just say it, because everybody wants to say it like crazy.”

As for “Hey Now”, (another of his co-produced tracks), Mustard made that beat 3-4 years ago on his own before Sounwave and Antonoff added it. “I just knew if I got the right person to do it, it would be perfect. I sent it to (Kendrick) and he got it right away and was like, ‘Okay, I know what to do .”

“I have this thing where I try to send (Kendrick) something every day,” he continues. “I’m always wondering what’s next. You know, this morning I’m texting like, ‘What do you need me for?’ Whatever it is, I’m on board and I’m ready to just keep your head down and keep working.”