Kendrick Lamar’s ‘GNX’ Belt Is an Homage to Los Angeles
Close BannerClose00Days:00Hours:00Minutes:00SecondsSEE THE BEST DEALSShop the Best Sales Before Black Friday's OverStyle“The people that get it, get it,” designer and LA native Eli Russell Linnetz tells GQ of KDot’s custom pin-covered buckle.By Eileen CartterNovember 27, 2024Photographs: Courtesy of Dave Free / pgLang, ERLSave this storySaveSave this storySaveAbout a year and a half ago, Kendrick Lamar set a lofty goal for himself: to become hip-hop’s “best-dressed moving forward.” Somewhat impressively, he continued to prioritize this objective throughout the intervening months of beef, parlaying his newfound style prowess—aided by his stylist Taylor McNeill—into rap-battle volleys. During his storied “Pop Out” victory-lap concert this summer, he gilded the lily in a luxurious red hoodie from the Olsens’ luxury label The Row.Last Friday, KDot resurfaced for another lap with his sixth studio album, GNX. Posing in front of a 1987 Buick GNX on the record’s cover, Lamar prominently wears a custom belt buckle covered with vintage pins created for him by Eli Russell Linnetz—who just so happened to be watching the Formula 1 Grand Prix in Las Vegas last week when his phone started buzzing with dozens of new notifications.“You never know what goes on in people’s worlds, everybody has so many things going on,” says the ERL designer. A couple of weeks prior, McNeill had reached out about a found-object belt buckle that Linnetz had made years prior; Kendrick, apparently, still remembered it and wanted to wear one on his new album cover. But as Linnetz himself readily admits, that was no guarantee that the album (or the belt’s notable placement on the artwork) would ever materialize.Kendrick Lamar's custom ERL belt buckle, crafted with vintage pins sourced in Los Angeles. Courtesy of Eli Russell LinnetzLamar doubled down by wearing the belt again in his new music video for GNX’s second track “Squabble Up,” which was directed by Calmatic, the filmmaker behind the 2023 remakes of two beloved ’90s films, House Party and White Men Can’t Jump. In the clip, the rapper wears a version of the deceptively simple outfit he popped out in at his LA showcase back in June. Sporting a similar pair of flared jeans with chewed-up hems, a backwards Dodgers cap, and Nike Shox R4s in racer blue and metallic silver, KDot swaps out that red hoodie for a cobalt one, tucking the sweatshirt’s hem just so to showcase the ERL buckle. That the piece also happens to resemble a WWE-style championship belt hardly seems like a coincidence.“We don’t really answer that many requests just because, you know, everyone wants to pull something and they never end up really using it,” Linnetz says. The designer has made a few pin belts over the years—including one that Pharrell Williams wore in his 2024 GQ Men of the Year cover story, which Linnetz co-styled and photographed—but he’s only fulfilled one other request for a custom buckle, and that was for Rihanna’s personal archive. That said, “it’s really exciting when someone ends up doing what they say, and follow through with the idea they’re going for as well.”Most PopularGQ RecommendsSteal These Sweaters From Your Dad ImmediatelyBy Gerald OrtizStyleYee-Haw! GQ’s 2024 Men of the Year Livestream and Party Brought the Rodeo to HollywoodBy Samuel HineGQ RecommendsThe Best Menswear Deals of the WeekBy Reed Nelson“The people that get it, get it,” Linnetz says, who now has a few versions of his pin belts for sale and has seen interest from the sorts of “art-world, art-collector people” who attended Linnetz’s show at the Jeffrey Deitch Gallery in Los Angeles this summer. It makes sense, he adds, since “the belts that I make are very much like little mini sculptures.”“It’s cool when you’re just in your bubble creating something and you’re not even making it for anyone, you’re just kind of creating art,” he adds, “and then people like Pharrell or Rihanna or Kendrick [who] are poets and storytellers and artists can kind of cut through the noise and connect with something.”A first-edition prototype for Lamar's pin belt, as seen on a model. Courtesy of ERLTo honor Lamar’s request, Linnetz—who grew up in Venice Beach and runs his namesake brand from LA—scoured his collection of local bric-a-brac. “I collect so many antiques and odds and ends that I had just the right stuff to put together to make him a special one with all pins from Los Angeles and California,” the designer says. (Linnetz’s archive also produced the vintage quilt A$AP Rocky wore to the 2021 Met Gala.) Basing his design off that first-edition prototype, the final buckle was a thematic pastiche for his and Lamar’s shared hometown featuring palm trees, Olympic rings, and Hollywood ephemera—including a few very timely nods to The Wizard of Oz and its proverbial Emerald City.Indeed, Linnetz said his personal favorite pin on the custom buckle is “a thousand percent the little dog.”“It’s so funny because it has such a specific attitude from far away on the al
About a year and a half ago, Kendrick Lamar set a lofty goal for himself: to become hip-hop’s “best-dressed moving forward.” Somewhat impressively, he continued to prioritize this objective throughout the intervening months of beef, parlaying his newfound style prowess—aided by his stylist Taylor McNeill—into rap-battle volleys. During his storied “Pop Out” victory-lap concert this summer, he gilded the lily in a luxurious red hoodie from the Olsens’ luxury label The Row.
Last Friday, KDot resurfaced for another lap with his sixth studio album, GNX. Posing in front of a 1987 Buick GNX on the record’s cover, Lamar prominently wears a custom belt buckle covered with vintage pins created for him by Eli Russell Linnetz—who just so happened to be watching the Formula 1 Grand Prix in Las Vegas last week when his phone started buzzing with dozens of new notifications.
“You never know what goes on in people’s worlds, everybody has so many things going on,” says the ERL designer. A couple of weeks prior, McNeill had reached out about a found-object belt buckle that Linnetz had made years prior; Kendrick, apparently, still remembered it and wanted to wear one on his new album cover. But as Linnetz himself readily admits, that was no guarantee that the album (or the belt’s notable placement on the artwork) would ever materialize.
Lamar doubled down by wearing the belt again in his new music video for GNX’s second track “Squabble Up,” which was directed by Calmatic, the filmmaker behind the 2023 remakes of two beloved ’90s films, House Party and White Men Can’t Jump. In the clip, the rapper wears a version of the deceptively simple outfit he popped out in at his LA showcase back in June. Sporting a similar pair of flared jeans with chewed-up hems, a backwards Dodgers cap, and Nike Shox R4s in racer blue and metallic silver, KDot swaps out that red hoodie for a cobalt one, tucking the sweatshirt’s hem just so to showcase the ERL buckle. That the piece also happens to resemble a WWE-style championship belt hardly seems like a coincidence.
“We don’t really answer that many requests just because, you know, everyone wants to pull something and they never end up really using it,” Linnetz says. The designer has made a few pin belts over the years—including one that Pharrell Williams wore in his 2024 GQ Men of the Year cover story, which Linnetz co-styled and photographed—but he’s only fulfilled one other request for a custom buckle, and that was for Rihanna’s personal archive. That said, “it’s really exciting when someone ends up doing what they say, and follow through with the idea they’re going for as well.”
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“The people that get it, get it,” Linnetz says, who now has a few versions of his pin belts for sale and has seen interest from the sorts of “art-world, art-collector people” who attended Linnetz’s show at the Jeffrey Deitch Gallery in Los Angeles this summer. It makes sense, he adds, since “the belts that I make are very much like little mini sculptures.”
“It’s cool when you’re just in your bubble creating something and you’re not even making it for anyone, you’re just kind of creating art,” he adds, “and then people like Pharrell or Rihanna or Kendrick [who] are poets and storytellers and artists can kind of cut through the noise and connect with something.”
To honor Lamar’s request, Linnetz—who grew up in Venice Beach and runs his namesake brand from LA—scoured his collection of local bric-a-brac. “I collect so many antiques and odds and ends that I had just the right stuff to put together to make him a special one with all pins from Los Angeles and California,” the designer says. (Linnetz’s archive also produced the vintage quilt A$AP Rocky wore to the 2021 Met Gala.) Basing his design off that first-edition prototype, the final buckle was a thematic pastiche for his and Lamar’s shared hometown featuring palm trees, Olympic rings, and Hollywood ephemera—including a few very timely nods to The Wizard of Oz and its proverbial Emerald City.
Indeed, Linnetz said his personal favorite pin on the custom buckle is “a thousand percent the little dog.”
“It’s so funny because it has such a specific attitude from far away on the album cover that it looks super serious and badass,” the designer added with a laugh. “And then when you actually look at it close up it's like the most ridiculous collection of, like, a little Toto dog in Wizard of Oz.”
