To Pimp a Butterfly. Blonde. My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy.

None of these albums are able to hold a candle to the sheer glory that is NAV’s Bad Habits. The Canadian artist’s second studio album is nothing short of spectacular. It has changed everything we know about the music world. Who the hell are the Beatles? Compared to Nav, nobodies. That’s who. NAV has constructed an inspiring manifesto on politics, art, religion, culture, and art. It clocks in at a mere 16 tracks, but casual fans and fanatics alike long for an album as expansive as this to last at a much longer rate. Fortunately, the deluxe version of this album adds an additional EIGHT tracks. What a treat! On the surface, it might seem like your average, run-of-the-mill trap album. But if you dig deep enough, you might be able to scrape the mere surface of the pure genius NAV exudes on Bad Habits.

Aesthetics

NAV is an innovator of sound. All of the songs on Bad Habits sound exactly the same; a stylistically genius addition to an already perfect piece of art. He makes the beats bland and forgettable to focus you on the real act: the evocative infraction of his voice. Every track sounds like it belongs on the B-side of the album, clearly as a slight against modern consumerism and fake hip hop. Everything he does on this album has been done before.

This may seem like a lazy, phoned-in excuse for an album, but, if you reach hard enough and dig deep enough, you’ll be able to see the true meaning of the words “Cause I get them racks in, I can get the pack in”.

You can hear the pain and the emotion as NAV raps about designer brands, women, cars, and clothes — pursin

Lyricism

NAV walked so Tupac could run. He’s in his bag lyrically, rhyming the words “cap” and “tap” like his very life depended on it. He recycles flows left and right on Bad Habits, showcasing his genius as an artist and his care for the environment by reducing and reusing. Quick-hitting phrases like “got the Breds on my feet but didn’t use bread for the heat” show NAV’s love for luxury and his wokeness behind the mic. To call his lyricism brilliant is to do it a disservice; each lyric is as insightful and thoughtful as the last. “Cut off all my side hoes, in du Cap with a dime though” is clearly a deeper look into oppression and classism. In this case, NAV’s “side hoes” represent the working class, while “a dime” clearly parallels rampant corporatism. The depth on this record is nothing short of astounding.

Personality

Critics may say that NAV has no personality, but it’s quite clear on Bad Habits that it’s just buried deep, deep within his braggadocios facade. Sure, critics may say that every single song on this album lacks any real sense of depth — they may even say that the songs fail to do anything that hasn’t been done a million times over. But it’s quite clear that these critics — the same people that think The Notorious B.I.G. is a good rapper — are just in it for the clout. These so-called “musical experts” don’t understand real hip hop. When they say NAV is uncreative, unoriginal, and mind-numbingly boring, it’s clear that they’re jealous. They might also be racist, too. Would you trust someone who dissed NAV the way Anthony Fantano did? Me neither.

Quality

If you thought this album was a phoned-in attempt to cash in on the streaming era and the success of biebs in the trap, you should be catapulted off a cliff. You should be executed by guillotine if you think that Bad Habits was an utter mistake of an album or an impressive waste of everyone’s time. You can’t sit here with a straight face and tell me that “I be Raf and Ricked up/Used to do the pick-up” doesn’t make you put some serious thought into your privilege as an American and what you can do to help marginalized groups. NAV is urging us to do better — to live up to the expectations he set out on this impressive, inspiring album.

Conclusions

There are moments in music that will be remembered for all of time. Then, there’s NAV — a cut above the rest. NAV’s brilliant tour-de-force, Bad Ideas, puts Mozart to shame. Sometimes, you might wonder how the hell someone got famous. You might wonder “why the hell do I have to hear about this person?” or “why is this person still famous?”. Never once has this ever occurred with NAV. This is a man who has struggled with fame and all of the money and success that comes with it; problems that I’m certain all of us can relate to. If you think this album is bad, you might as well take a permanent hiatus from music. There has never been — and never will be — an album as good as NAV’s Bad Habits.

Final score: ∞ works of genius/10