Kendrick Lamar surprises with new album 'GNX'

Kendrick Lamar performs during the Festival d'ete de Quebec in Quebec City, Canada on July 7, 2017. (Photo by Amy Harris/Invision/AP, File)

LOS ANGELES — Kendrick Lamar gave music listeners an early holiday present Friday with the surprise drop of a new album.

The Grammy winner's 12-track “GNX” is the rapper's first release since 2022's “Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers” and his sixth studio album overall. It also comes just months after his rap battle with Drake.

The rap megastar will also headline February's Apple Music Super Bowl Halftime Show in New Orleans.

Lamar, 37, has experienced massive success since his debut album “good kid, m.A.A.d city” in 2012. Since then, he’s accumulated 17 Grammy wins and became the first non-classical, non-jazz musician to win a Pulitzer Prize for his 2017 album “DAMN.”

The surprise release caps a big year for the Lamar, who featured on the song “Like That” with Future and Metro Boomin — a track that spent three weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 this year. He also scored another hit with “Not Like Us,” a track emanating from the Drake feud.