NAV Review

The sound is borrowed and reasonably well borrowed. Dark synths, slow drums and a heavy reverb wash, all of it lifted from the label he was signed to, and as background it functions. What sinks it is the lead performance. He sings in a flat, nasal monotone with no range and no phrasing, and the writing is a loop of the same four boasts about jewellery, drugs and being from Toronto, repeated without variation or any attempt at an image.

Some Way is the one people remember and the guest carries it entirely. Up has a decent beat. Myself is tolerable. There is no moment across the record where anything surprising happens, which for a debut is the most damaging possible outcome. He was a genuinely good producer before this and the album is proof that the two jobs are not the same. Competent, derivative, and completely inessential.