NAV has slowly been integrating himself into rap/R&B scene for the past few years. He has collaborated with some of the hottest names in contemporary hip hop today, like Travis Scott, Lil Uzi Vert, The Weeknd, Metro Boomin, and Quavo. NAV has his hand in several facets of the music making process. The range of his skills has led him to have rapping, producing, and songwriting all under his belt. After recently coming out of his two month retirement from music prompted by Lil Uzi Vert’s own step back from the industry, NAV dropped his second studio album entitled Bad Habits.

NAV’s foray back into music (although he barely left) is just as impressive as his previous project and features. Bad Habits encapsulates NAV’s strict adherence to the OVO type cloth he has been cut from. Because of his resistance to diverge from the sleepy and emotionally driven (in NAV’s case, devoid) sing-rap archetype popularized by the likes of Drake and The Weeknd, NAV delivers a project we have all undoubtedly heard before.

Bad Habits gets pretty boring pretty quickly. Nav’s voice follows very simple melodies over slow trap beats. The sound of this album is fairly predictable. Once you’ve heard the style of the first two or three tracks, you have a good sense on what the the entire 50 minutes sounds like. Despite the lack of ambition NAV demonstrates on the project, the tracks do follow a formula that works. Even though they are extremely basic both musically and lyrically, NAV has a voice that is easy to sing along with. The beats are catchy and effortlessly danceable. Bad Habits is undeniably a product of its time. Very little within the project on its own holds any longevity or stand-alone merit. However, if I were to hear songs like “To My Grave” or “Taking Chances” at a party, I wouldn’t be opposed to having it play. However, I wouldn’t be able to distinguish these songs from artists like Raury or Majid Jordan, either.

The strongest track on Bad Habits is “Price on My Head” featuring The Weeknd. I believe this is largely due to the fact that the first two verses of the song are carried by The Weeknd himself, with NAV not coming in with his rap until the last third of the song. Even so, I thought the production on “Price on My Head” was refreshing in comparison to the rest of the album. The synth piano progression gives the ear an interesting sound to latch onto throughout the track. The Weeknd’s voice is smooth and cool as he sings about the recklessness of his party lifestyle and how he attracts jealousy from those who wish they could live like him. NAV’s verse uses a healthy amount of autotune both to add to the sort of frantic nature of the song as well as to compensate for any vocal disparities between him and The Weeknd. The Weeknd’s feature is also the best feature on the album by far, with big names such as Young Thug, Meek Mill, and Gunna falling short.

On the whole, NAV’s Bad Habits is less of a complete flop and more of an underwhelming release. None of the songs are awful. In fact, they each sound nice on their own and would fit seamlessly into a night out playlist. The tracks are catchy enough to stick to the ear for the duration of the songs. But that is about it. NAV fails to bring anything new to the subsection of rap in which he operates in. And because of that, Bad Habits is nothing special as an album or as a reflection of NAV’s artistry. This album will come and go, and is utterly forgettable.

Favorite Tracks

To My Grave

Price on My Head (Feat. The Weeknd)

Vicodin

Rating: 5

Stream Bad Habits here:

Bad Habits, an album by NAV on Spotify

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