The narrative about Rexdale-native’s Nav has shifted numerous times throughout his career. He came into the music scene red hot, off of SoundCloud classics like “Myself”, “Fell In Love With LA”, and the early collaboration with Metro Boomin ,“Up”. Since then, he went on to become one of the most judged and hated rappers in the game. After dropping several albums, one of which was a collaboration project with Metro Boomin, the story about Nav’s career went from underrated to overrated, and now arguably “overhated”. Still Nav has kept consistent with his releases, using momentum to shift this narrative using only music. Nav works with some of the world’s biggest and favourite artists, a lot of which are featured on his latest project, Good Intentions, which also happens to be his best project in recent years. The follow up to 2019’s Bad Habits, this album boasts features from Future, Gunna, Travis Scott, Young Thug, Lil Uzi Vert, Lil Durk, and even a posthumous verse from Pop Smoke, with whom he realest one of the best songs of this year so far, “Wolves”.
Good Intentions can best be described as a polished version of the Nav we are used to. He hasn’t veered away from what “wasn’t working” to fans, instead choosing to make the music better. We could argue that these are some of the best beats we’ve ever heard, not only for a Nav project, but in general. A discussion should be had involving Nav as one of the best beat-pickers on the planet, a very valuable skill in the rap game. Although he doesn’t have production credits on a majority of the album, it’s hard not to believe that he was heavily involved in the creation/curation of the beats. Aside from dope production though, Nav also stepped up his delivery. After being loved for his relaxed, trancy vocals, he had been labeled as boring rapper with lazy bars. His music lacked content, and his flows were predictable. With this album though, he has blown at least the latter part of that sentiment out of the water. I have never heard Nav rap like this in my life. He skates on an array of dope beats with all kinds of distinct flows – and that’s while rapping alongside some of the most creative rappers out. Yes, a lot of the subject matter still pertain to drugs, women, and partying, but this is the best he’s sounded while doing that. He raps on “Coast to Coast”, one of the album’s stand out tracks:
“Fuck It, I rap about drugs all the time, cause I do them too”
Nav is self-aware, and if you don’t like it, you don’t have to – but he isn’t changing, he’s just getting better. Song’s like “Run It Up” featuring Pop Smoke, “Spend It” featuring Young Thug, and “No Ice” featuring Lil Durk are some of our favourite features, with Future doing a damn good job on “My Business”.
“She Hurtin”, “Did You Wrong” and “My Space” are solo Nav tracks are reminiscent of the early music we loved in his career. He finishes off the album with “Proud Of Me” an ode, maybe plea, for approval, but based on the tone of the song, he knows he knows he was able to deliver.
Check out the album and let us know your favourite tracks!
