Cole Garvey
Sports Editor
Nav’s classic smooth rap and trap beats, as well as songs featuring multiple other rap artists, are found in his new studio album, “Bad Habits.”
Nav’s 4th studio album, “Bad Habits” features 7 other rap and R&B artists. Nav’s comeback album includes the classic smooth trap beats that Nav fans have grown to love, as well as harder rap in songs featuring Meek Mill and Future. “Bad Habits” is an album for the listener looking for the classic Nav sound, with a splash of harder rap.
Nav, a Canadian rapper on the rise, recently released his 24 track studio album “Bad Habits.” The 29 year old Canadian rapper first debuted his music on Soundcloud in 2015, and hasn’t looked back since. Nav’s smooth trap beats and wavy flow are similar to other artists such as Post Malone, Rae Sremmurd and Lil Skies, and have brought him massive success, winning him the 2018 Juno Award for Breakthrough Artist of the Year.
Nav, or Navraj Singh Goraya, got his start in his hometown in the Rexdale neighbourhood in Toronto where he began producing beats for underground Toronto artists in high school. He started to gain mainstream appeal after his top song on Soundcloud, “Take Me Simple,” was streamed over one million times.
Throughout the album, Nav’s beats are continuously smooth, yet as the album nears its end, his beats start to become faster. Nav’s vocals also continuously speed up and flow better later in the album, due to the increased pace of the beats. Even though the flow and speed increases as the album progresses, many of the songs seem to blend together, and it becomes difficult to determine which song is which.
The best songs of the album come early in “Tap” and “Price on My Head.” In “Tap,” Meek Mill is featured throughout the song and brings his iconic Philly voice to Nav’s smooth beats. The song exceeds expectations as the most unique song of the album, focusing more on the lyrics and flow rather than the beats. “Price on My Head,” featuring The Weekend, is simply a banger. Nav uses a trap drum beat along with The Weekend’s incredible vocals to create a catchy masterpiece.
Although the album is full of fun and wavy beats, Nav’s lyrics clearly lack in almost all of his songs. His voice occasionally sounds way too choppy and distorted, which makes some songs hard to listen to. Also, none of the mundane songs at the end of the album can even be compared to the strong start of the album. Almost all of the songs at the end of the album seem to blend together into a single monotonous beat.
After finishing the album, it becomes quite clear that Nav seems to lean on the other featured artists in the album to elevate its quality. Although this isn’t truly a bad thing, it comes across as slightly lazy and quite traditional. Even though Nav is talented in making beats, he isn’t experimental or creative enough to truly break out into the mainstream rap or trap worlds.
Nav’s “Bad Habits” can be found online on Amazon for $2.00 as a CD. The album can also be streamed on platforms such as Spotify, Apple Music and Youtube.
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