Gunna Explains Releasing Album Amid Drake and Kendrick Lamar Beef

Gunna just released his fifth album "One of Wun" at a time when hip hop is highly volatile -- rappers are feuding left and right, but he just wants to drop vibes!!!

TMZ Hip Hop got Gunna at LAX, while on a quick break from his 'Bittersweet' tour, and got a gauge on the reception from his latest project.

Gunna's new album is projected to do around 65,000 sales in its debut week. Not a bad showing at a time when Taylor Swift's 'Tortured Poets Department' has topped Billboard's album chart 4 weeks straight ... and Kendrick Lamar's "Not Like Us" single became one of the biggest rap songs ever -- at least on Spotify, where it has a record-setting 100 million streams in 9 days.

Kendrick even mentioned Gunna on his first Drake diss "Euphoria" ... but Gunna swears he's been oblivious to it all.

He thanked his fans for their support and told us he never considered pushing his album back -- living on his mini-island has kept him from following the daily rap tea.