New Kendrick Lamar Album lends the iconic Buick GNX brand a helping hand

A new Kendrick Lamar album has just handed the Buick GNX some much-needed time in the limelight.

The American muscle brand once flexed its biceps as an icon of the 80s, but has since been lifting dead weight after a transition towards SUVs with the Enclave and Encore. 

That is until Kendrick Lamar offered a spot-up for the brand by naming his new album after the iconic Buick GNX.

In a surprise drop, Lamar’s ‘GNX’ pays homage to the iconic 80s limited-production turbocharged Regal, and it could be exactly what Buick needs to get back on the map.

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New Kendrick Lamar album popularises Buick GNX again

The headlights of Kendrick Lamar’s sixth album have flashed past us in a heartbeat as the popular rapper dropped ‘GNX’ without as much of a hint on Friday, November 22.

Already being lauded as the best album of 2024 by many critics, Lamar’s double-entendre album title has caught the attention of petrolheads and music fanatics.

As a play on words with ‘Generation X’, the new Kendrick Lamar album art and social media marketing adverts show him posing in front of the 1987 Buick GNX Regal.

He also makes many lyrical references to the car throughout the tracks.

Why? Well, the GNX Regal was a car born in the same year as Lamar and he appears to share admiration for the Buick and its iconic look.

Yet, Buick has yet to acknowledge this tribute, and could be missing out on a key opportunity to cast itself back into the memory of car fanatics.

Buick GNX’s pop culture history could repeat itself

Back when the GNX first launched, the brand hitched itself onto the coattails of Star Wars – not unlike this absolutely incredible Corvette.

The all-black design was popularised as Darth Vader’s car – not literally as Anakin preferred X-Wing spaceships, but metaphorically.

Its all-black appearance was compared to Vader’s ‘dark side’ outfit.

A step away from the popular V8 Mustangs with a turbocharged six-cylinder engine had the Buick looking more like a villain in the American muscle category too.

Having associated itself directly with Vader and the Star Wars franchise to up its marketing skills, history could repeat itself 37 years later. Buick could push itself back into pop culture through Lamar.

However, Buick hasn’t shown much activity on the advertising front since Lamar’s surprise drop on Friday and continues to advocate its new “exceptional by design” range of SUVs.

General Motors has revealed that EVs are the future for Buick, following the Wildcat in 2022.

Maybe the old American muscle days are being left as just a dusty chapter in Buick’s history book.