Lil Nas X's Debut Project '7' Is Exactly What I Expected: Good
Lil Nas X’s debut EP titled ‘7’, dropped at midnight last night. It has 8 songs that include only two versions of Old Town Road as bookends on the trackless. The remix with Billy Ray Cyrus as the first and the OG version brining up the rear. I have a lot of thoughts to give on this album so I wanna be very clear. I do think this is a very good album. Which is a lot different than what I thought last night when I listened to it for the first time. If you take out the versions of OTR it’s only about 14 minutes of music so it’s not super time consuming to give it a chance. At first listen I was definitely underwhelmed. But I was also super tired and listened to it just playing from my phone in my bedroom. I woke up early and was able to listen to it a few times through while I was getting ready and may commute into work. I really enjoyed it when I got to really zone out and hear the lyrics.
My takeaways from the EP are:
1. Lil Nas X is very good at writing/structuring lyrics into really catchy hooks. It’s what in my opinion is gonna keep him so relevant in the mainstream audience.
2. He showed his versatility and that he can’t really be boxed into a specific genre. He has songs like Panini and Kick it that have more rap/pop type feels. He has Rodeo with a feature from Cardi B that reminds me of that OTR country/rap/rock kind of flow. Then you have F9mily (You & Me) and Bring U Down that are rock songs and C7osure that is a full on pop song. He’s all over the place but I would say he hit on all these and sounded like he belonged singing all the different kinds of rhythms.
3. The production is really strong. You can tell he really took his time picking out the beats and instruments that he used on the project. He used a Nirvana sample on Panini and the legend Travis Barker produced the song ‘F9mily (You & Me).
4. The project was good. I wouldn’t say it was incredible or the best album ever, nothing crazy like that. I will say it was good enough to keep this massive movement he’s created on the tracks to stardom. He went after commercial success and I think that is what he is going to continue to have if the music can stay at this level of quality and if he can continue to use social media to market himself the way he was to get to this point. With him it’s not necessarily going to be his music that takes him to the top, but his brand and movement that he’s created for himself is already on such a pedestal that as long as he doesn’t put out complete trash the mainstream is gonna continue to love and worship him. The younger crowd is gonna keep singing his songs and Generation Z will be what carries him going forward.
The guy has the world by the balls right now and passed his initial test in the music industry. He still has a few snippets I really liked that were left off the EP that I’m looking forward to hearing on his upcoming album. I’ve heard rumor it will be towards the end of this year but with how long it took him to put out this EP after OTR who the fuck knows. All I know is it seems like Lil Nas X is here to stay (for now).