Before Kendrick Lamar potentially sweeps the 2026 Grammy Awards with his nine-time nominated album GNX, the rap legend’s latest record has collected an even more impressive accolade. The 12-track release, which was also the first album in its genre to sell 1 million units in 2025, is Spotify’s most-streamed hip-hop album of 2025 by a longshot.
According to the Hip Hop All Day X account, GNX amassed 2.98 billion plays on the streaming service, far exceeding the runner-up, Playboi Carti’s Music at 2.16 billion streams. Tyler, the Creator’s Chromakopia came in at No. 3 with 1.66 billion streams. While Spotify’s top 3 rap albums were all released in 2025 or late 2024, Kanye West’s 2007 album Graduation and Lamar’s 2017 album Damn took the fourth and fifth spots with 1.5 billion and 1.45 billion streams, respectively.
The new year will likely bring GNX even more success. It’s up for both Album of the Year and Best Rap Album, while the single “Luther,” featuring buttery R&B vocals from SZA, is nominated for Record of the Year and Song of the Year. The more aggro “TV Off,” featuring fellow Los Angeles-raised rapper Lefty Gunplay, is up for Best Rap Performance and Best Rap Song.
Last year, Lamar’s Drake-dissing “Not Like Us” swept the Grammys in all of the aforementioned categories with the exception of Best Rap Album, for which it wasn’t eligible because it was a single. While a back-to-back sweep of major categories at the Grammys is uncommon, it’s not unprecedented: Stevie Wonder’s Innervisions and Fulfillingness’ First Finale took Album of the Year in 1974 and 1975, while Lamar himself toook Best Rap Song in 2015 with “i” and in 2016 with “Alright.”
GNX, which arrived via surprise release in November 2024, also has received an 87/100 on review aggregator Metacritic, which indicated “Universal Acclaim” among 22 reviews. NME called the album “an easy contender for the rap album of 2024,” while the Los Angeles Times opined, “Whatever its source at this point, indignation remains a valuable motivator of Lamar’s art; his writing and rapping on GNX are as razor-sharp as they were in the brutal diss tracks he released one after another.” Meanwhile, Rolling Stone wrote, “Lamar is the GOAT of 2024, that much is certain. And, for the most part, GNX proves why he earned the title.”