The Best and Worst of Rap This Week: Nav Turns Up the Melodrama to Absurd Levels and More
Pitchfork’s weekly rap column covers songs, mixtapes, albums, Instagram freestyles, memes, dances, weird tweets, fashion trends—and anything else that catches our attention in the world of hip-hop.
Nav’s Good Intentions album trailer
It’s hard being Nav. We know this because the Toronto rapper filled his last two albums with painful stories about how he has too much talent. And in the documentary-style trailer for his upcoming record, he works overtime to reaffirm his self-proclaimed status as an underappreciated talent. Some highlights:
At the top of the trailer, Nav gives a melodramatic speech about the pitfalls of his abundant success. “I had a vision board in my room with all the things I want this year,” he deadpans, as an image of him nodding intensely flashes across the screen. “I pretty much got all of them.” You can’t help but feel his pain.
Earlier this year, an NBA 2K version of Nav hit the internet and became a minor meme. Throughout the trailer, the image appears on the screen. It’s a subliminal message from Nav to his haters: He sees your hate, but he’s using it as fuel.
When Nav bends over out of exhaustion. I can only imagine the long hours of writing, producing, and engineering that made Nav reach this breaking point.
Grainy footage of Nav playing the piano. Welcome to Nav’s classical period.
Drake’s tribute to SoundCloud
MexikoDro and the Beat Pluggz collective’s producer tag—“PLUG!”—is ubiquitous on SoundCloud. Best known for their early work with Playboi Carti, the crew essentially created an underground counterpart to Atlanta rap production staples like Metro Boomin and 808 Mafia in the mid 2010s. They quickly moved on from that clouded style, but it defined a moment in time and remains nostalgic for many. So hearing Drake rap over a MexikoDro beat on “From Florida With Love,” from the superstar’s new Dark Lanes Demo Tape, is surreal. It feels like a moment that was never supposed to happen, an acknowledgement of a sound that laid the foundation for an era of rap on SoundCloud.
Babyxsosa: “Kobe”
Babyxsosa’s songs take you to a dreamworld. Last year, the Richmond, Virginia native established her bright sing-rap style with “EVERYWHEREIGO” and “LIGHTSKIN SHAWTY,” a pair of GAWD-produced tracks. Recently, she hooked up with the New York-based Surf Gang, a grassroots collective of producers and rappers, on her debut mixtape, BabyxObama. Running under 10 minutes, the four-track tape is a smooth trip propelled by Babyxsosa’s lighthearted vocals and ghostly production. On “Kobe,” an early standout, she sings repeatedly, “Ever since the gang switched up, now they callin’ me,” sounding like she’s leading a séance.
Medhane: “Allegedly”
After grappling with self-doubt, New York’s Medhane reemerged last year with Own Pace, elevating his pensive, coming-of-age raps. Delivered over lo-fi production, it set the Brooklyn-raised rapper on a run that has continued over the last six months. On “Allegedly,” his newest track, Medhane taps into the soul of a Chuck Strangers beat, and his newfound confidence permeates his always-thoughtful raps: “From a city where the lil niggas dyin’/Killed your brother so you slidin’, spinnin’ blocks.” Medhane is feeling himself right now, and it’s justified.
YoungBoy Never Broke Again doesn’t want to quarantine
Dear YoungBoy,
On “I-10 Baby,” from your new album, you rap, “I ain’t quarantining.” I would just like to say: please do.
Sincerely,
Alphonse
Bris: “First 42 Hours Freestyle”
Sacramento’s Bris produced some of last year’s best West Coast rap. His streak started with a collaborative mixtape with G Man, continued with a string of slithering singles, and ended with an arrest in late 2019. On “First 42 Hours Freestyle,” recorded after his release last week, he picks up where he left off. His trademark style—a calm whisper that makes every line feel twice as long—remains unchanged. Over a traditional West Coast instrumental, Bris mutters unnerving threats. “You ain’t in these streets, you on live recording/Yeah, I wake up, grab my glock, that my type of morning,” he says. He’s already making up for lost time.
Young Thug hardly knows the steps that go with his own song
Shawny Binladen: Shawn Wick
Some of New York’s best rap is currently coming from Queens, where Shawny Binladen and YTB have quietly built a movement (even Drake knows). One listen to Shawny’s new mixtape, Shawn Wick, and it feels like you too are passing the time with get-money-quick schemes in the deepest corner of an outer borough. Take “Still Moving Tact,” where Shawny gleefully details the crime life of his crew, all with the goal of designer brand purchases.
Detroit mixtape of the week: Nuk’s Red Tape
Whenever Nuk gets out of one jam, he’ll surely end up in another. If anyone else lived the life Nuk describes they would be sweating, but he raps everything with a shrug. “I don’t ever see my PO cause she gon’ make me pee,” he says on “The Real Me,” a line that will surely lead to an even worse situation. But, somehow, Nuk will get out of it.
Revisiting Prodigy’s solo masterpiece
This past weekend was the 25th anniversary of Mobb Deep’s The Infamous, one of New York City’s greatest rap albums. I spent the following days immersed in Prodigy’s staggeringly vivid verses, and the record I found myself returning to most was the late rapper’s 2007 solo comeback, Return of the Mac. On it, the Queens-raised MC sounds almost lifeless as he raps about the violence, addiction, and crime that’s ravaging New York’s underbelly. There’s no hope here. His hook on “The Rotten Apple” is especially chilling: “The Rotten Apple made me like this/I don’t give a fuck/I shoot a nigga down and cut a nigga up/New York made me this way; I’m all about a buck/My close friends was murdered, I bullet proof my truck/Shit, New York taught me, it’s no mercy.” Throughout the ominous and brutal record, Prodigy sounds like a mafia boss surveying his city from on high as it spirals into chaos.
Originally Appeared on Pitchfork
