3 long months, and I am finally back to Hit you with another worst Rappers in the Game.
I know, it's been a Minute but don't lose your Faith, this series will never end, You
Know I Am always gonna Bring It Back.
And today we will be looking at Navraj Goraya, aka NAV, the self proclaimed brown boy of
hip hop.
To get an opinion of NAV's music, I listened to his self titled project, Perfect Timing
and Reckless.
Nav may claim to be the best brown boy in the game, but is he one of the worst rappers
in the game in My Mind?
Well this is CDTV and that's the question we'll be answering today, looking at Both
Sides of his music, positive and negative, Ups and downs.
Let's get right into it.
Part 1: Voice
Might as well start this off with a very obvious statement, NAV doesn't really have the largest
vocal range in hip hop.
One thing that you'll notice is his tone is very similar, on a lot of tracks.
This is especially true if you listen to his self titled album or many of the songs from
Perfect Timing, for the most part it doesn't even sound like he's making an effort to
change his delivery.
My Mind, Sleep, Minute and Hit are perfect examples of this, with Hit probably being
the worst offender.
The fact that the beat is more sleepy than most of the beats NAV uses just isn't great
when you combine it with his dead end rap singing which lasts for the entire song.
With some of these songs it just really feels like NAV is droning to me, and it makes it
difficult for him to carry an album past the 30 minute mark, most of the time.
You see, I say that because he does have his moments, especially on his most recent project
Reckless.
It's not a massive step up or anything, but I feel like he actually makes more of
an effort on this one to make his voice a little different and varied throughout the
project.
The peak of this for me is the song Hold Your Hand, where NAV uses this weird, higher pitched
voice for most of it, and I think it genuinely sounds good and keeps the track interesting
from start to finish.
That's one of my favourites from NAV.
With most tracks on Reckless, I really do feel like he's trying more and I appreciate
that.
Even on some older songs like Lonely, there's glimpses of him throwing a couple more layers
into his vocals to spice them up a little.
He just needs to do that a lot more often.
Of course there are occasions where him trying to step out of his comfort zone doesn't
work, such as Bring It Back where during the hook it sounds like the auto tune is struggling
to keep his vocals in key, then there's Glow Up where he ends each line in this really
goofy way, but mostly I appreciate when he sounds like he's somewhat trying a bit more.
When it comes down to his voice, I feel like NAV can be very divisive, and despite my criticisms,
I actually do enjoy his vocals to some degree.
Sure, it doesn't vary much, but I think that's why I feel really comfortable listening
to his music.
I know his voice isn't anything crazy or unique, and he massively leans on auto tune,
but it gives off a nice relaxed vibe a lot of the time, and I don't hate it as much
as a lot of people do.
Based off of what I've said here, I'm gonna give NAV a 5.5/10 for his voice, right
in the middle.
I think he's getting better, and there's even songs where he uses a more low-key voice
that I do enjoy.
But, his voice has also stopped a lot of his songs from reaching their full potential,
so I can't give him a much higher score than that.
Part 2: Flow
Let's start this segment off with some nice good positive points.
There are 2 songs in particular where I absolutely love NAV's flow, and that is his featured
verses on the songs Maintain and Bali.
The one on Maintain really surprised me because it was so consistent and has a few more flow
switches than your average NAV song.
It's one of my top verses from him.
And in Bali his flow just suits the song perfectly, that verse genuinely gets me hyped up.
But those really are the most standout flows from NAV, because on almost every other song
he's just pretty standard when it comes to this area of his music.
In this case I kinda get it, because having multiple crazy flow switches doesn't really
suit the vibe his music is going for, it would kinda disrupt that sleepy atmosphere, but
to say his flow is anything above just alright would be a stretch to me.
He does kinda push sticking to one flow for too long to the limit though, and to show
you what I mean let me play you a clip of his song called I Am
That flow sounds pretty nice right?
Yeah it really does... until you reach the 3 minute mark of the song and realise he's
still using the exact.
same.
flow.
I'm not joking, there's not a single flow change on that song and it really takes away
from how good it could've been.
It's the same on songs like My Mind and Minute, a song where NAV's flow is so dull
that Playboi Carti decides to actually rap on it to compensate.
That's a landmark achievement.
I will admit however that NAV's cadence typically does help his songs have the vibe
that they do, and that's why I'm not gonna be too harsh and I'll give him a 4/10.
He does have a couple standout moments like I said and his flow is suitable for the sound
he's going for, it's just a lot of the time it can get a bit dull and repetitive.
Part 3: Lyrics
I've heard a lot of people call NAV one of the most uninspired lyricists out there,
and wow they were not joking.
I don't think he's the absolute worst, but I have a lot to talk about, so let's
just dive into it.
There's one particular aspect that NAV is awfully unique in, and that is the fact that
he manages to nail sounding really creepy with his lyrics an awful lot, a trait which
I don't think I've seen from many rappers in this series so far.
A trait I don't really wanna see from rappers in this series.
The song "Lonely" appears to be about NAV trying to coerce a girl into doing drugs
with him when she really doesn't want to.
Why are you so desperate for her to do drugs when it's clear she's not into that?
It's just very questionable.
Then we all know about the lyric on Glow Up, where he says "I grab that *** and she call
me a p3rv, she opened her legs so I had to insert".
Now that coulda been a completely consensual interaction, she might've been playfully
calling him a p3rv, that doesn't seem normal, but he really made it sound as non-consensual
as possible.
Not really something you wanna do when you wanna portray this image of a stereotypical
rapper who gets a lot of women without even trying.
Seriously, just listen to his albums and you'll be able to compile a list of questionable
and creepy NAV lyrics in no time.
Another big issue I have in this category is his inconsistency with his thoughts on
certain things.
What I mean by that is I've noticed he always kinda seems to contradict himself or seem
hypocritical, and this really stops him from building a consistent character that you can
buy into.
Personality is pretty important in rap, and NAV doesn't have much of one.
Case in point, "Wanted You".
I really enjoy the sound of the song, but it makes NAV look clueless when you consider
the lyrics.
He talks about a girl he thought he liked cheating on him, but it's hard to sympathise
when in the song "Interlude" he literally says; Damn, I can't believe such a noble,
loyal man got cheated on.
My heart bleeds for you NAV.
He does have some promising moments where he actually drops some fairly depressing lines
into his songs, such as these ones but they appear so randomly amongst lines that aren't
emotional at all that they don't really hold that much weight.
There's only rare and welcome occasions like Held Me Down where he fully displays
some emotional vulnerability, but it doesn't happen regularly.
I guess the last thing I want to say is that Hold Your Hand is also my favourite in terms
of lyrics, I really do like that song.
He basically talks about giving a girl all this attention, but her never really appreciating
it and never being there for him.
I just heard this song right when I was feeling a similar thing, so this one stuck with me
honestly.
Not to mention, the last verse where he references the majority of his song titles in a way that
mostly makes sense is genuinely a nice bit of writing.
Also, re-watch the intro of this video and you'll notice I did the same thing just
cause I thought it'd be fun.
Overall, I'm gonna give NAV a 1.5/10.
There's the odd track I can relate to and a few lyrics that were nice, but for the most
part NAV just embodies the stereotypical rapper image with very few unique aspects.
(Also, he's gonna let you know that he is, and I quote, a "brown boy" very very often)
Part 4: Beats
Now unlike most rappers in this series, NAV produces or co-produces a large majority of
his own beats, and that's something I can always commend.
You can definitely tell he has a very particular production style, with most of his work sounding
pretty subtle and nocturnal, usually with very subdued vocal samples in the background
of the beats.
Now I personally enjoy a decent amount of his lowkey style of production, but there
are a couple instances where he can be so lowkey with his beats that they're almost
non-existent.
This happens mostly with songs on his self titled project, like TTD or the suitably named
Sleep.
Most of the instruments are barely even present, and if you mix a dead beat with NAV, he's
never gonna be able to revive it.
Honestly the production got pretty repetitive on that album.
I do think NAV's solo production style is alright as a whole, but when I look at my
favourite songs from him, 90% of the time NAV doesn't have a production credit on
them or they're co produced.
Hold Your Hand, Champion, Freshman List, Wanted You, Both Sides, these are just a handful
of tracks where I love the beats and they're entirely handled by other producers.
For me, this is a sign that he should definitely work with other producers beats a lot more
in the future, because he can make some relatively nice songs over them.
At the very least I would love if he had more co-produced tracks, because his collab album
with Metro Boomin definitely contains some of my favourite beats that he's used.
Just listen to the one on I Am, that's a sound that I absolutely love.
Overall I'd have to say I mostly really like the beats NAV chooses to use, but I definitely
appreciate that he's working more and more with other producers and I hope he continues
to do so.
I'll give him a 7/10 here, considering the fact that the beats are hugely responsible
for making sure his songs don't get too boring.
I personally like the moody night time aesthetic his music gives off, and a lot of that sound
can be credited to the production.
My biggest issue is really that it just gets quite repetitive and bland on his self titled
project.
Part 5: Enjoyment
So to rank my enjoyment of his albums, it goes like this; Perfect Timing as my favourite,
because even though NAV is still quite monotone on here and it doesn't need to be as long
as it is, it's actually pretty perfect night time driving music and it has the highest
proportion of memorable songs, then Reckless because even though there's some awful and
forgettable tracks, it does have some hits on there, and in last place we have his self
titled album because even though there's some songs I really enjoy on that one, it
showcases NAV at the peak of being moody, generic and bland.
If you've heard one NAV song you've heard most of his discography, but it's great
music to put on if you just wanna relax in my opinion.
Or turn up as well.
Maybe this is just me with my friends, but I'm not joking when I say I've partied
to the exact same NAV songs that I've fell asleep to, the best way I can describe it
is dead hype.
NAV embodies genericism in most aspects of his music, and he does it in the least energetic
way, but I'd be lying if I said I don't replay his songs a whole lot.
You guys would probably be shocked at how many of his songs I listen to frequently.
I know his music is generic and standard, but the overall vibe just works for me a lot
of the time.
I'm gonna give NAV a 7/10 for my enjoyment rating, and I'll be patiently awaiting the
roasts I'm gonna get in the comments for this one.
Part 6: Verdict + Ranking
So overall, NAV gets a final score of 25/50 here, a nice even 50%, which actually is a
somewhat high score for this series.
This places NAV at the 10th spot on our list, something I'm sure people will point out
and criticise when they see the list without watching this video to see my reasoning.
This puts NAV above Smokepurpp, but below Juice WRLD.
I can understand why NAV gets the heavy criticism that he does, but I don't think his music
is as bad as most people say.
(Outro)
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