Album: 7 EP
Artist: Lil Nas X
Release Date: June 21, 2019
Genre: Hip Hop/Pop/Alt Rock/Trap
Length: 0:18:44
Label: Columbia
Producer: Abaz/Allen Ritter/Alone In A Boy Band/Atticus Ross/Bizness Boi/Boi-1da/Dot da Genius/Fwdslxsh/Jahaan Sweet/Lil Nas X/Roy Lenzo/Russ Chell/Ryan Tedder/Take a Daytrip/Travis Barker/Trent Reznor/Unxque/X-Plosive/YoungKio
Let's take our horse to the club...
Following the record breaking success of "Old Town Road", Lil Nas X released his debut EP, 7. Debuting at #2 on the US Billboard 200, certifying Platinum in the US and receiving six Grammy Nominations, Lil Nas X ultimately exceeded the expectations from "Old Town Road".
Combining rap, trap and country, Lil Nas X and Billy Ray Cyrus open the EP with the longest #1 single, staying at the top for nineteen weeks, with "Old Town Road - Remix". The original song, created by Lil Nas X did not feature Billy Ray Cyrus and was a source of major controversy in the country and hip hop charts as no one knew what genre to place it in. The country charts were mad there was rap in a country song and vice verse. In order to combat this, Billy Ray Cyrus came on and provided his voice to ultimately categorize the track as country trap.
The second track on the album "Panini" has Lil Nas X rapping about how fans wanted him to be successful, but now they want him to come back to Earth after he reached success. The song features melodic whistling, catchy lyrics, a band type feel during the chorus with trap beats during the verses. The song has a slightly different sound than "Old Town Road" and quickly rose to be Lil Nas X's second biggest hit.
The third track on the album "F9mily (You & Me)" features legendary Blink-182 drummer, Travis Barker on drums. An alternative rock sound while keeping the meaty bass hits given to the listener in the prior two tracks, this song starts to showcase Lil Nas X's talent in different genres. While far from being the best song on the EP, "F9mily (You & Me)" allows the listener to appreciate that Lil Nas X doen't want to be typecast into one genre.
"Rodeo" is the fifth track on the album and seems to be a follow up to "Old Town Road". Continuing to adopt a country trap sound, the song opens up with a western sound from the guitar, leading into the trap beats, all with a country sound from Lil Nas X's rap bars, and eventually features Cardi B giving a verse a little over halfway through the song. "Rodeo" features various country western sounds as well as horses in the background, whistling, trumpets, and various other sounds that add to the overall vibe. The seventh track on the album "C7osure" provided a way for Lil Nas X to talk about his sexuality as a member of the LGBTQ community. The song features themes of uncertainty about one's future and persevering through difficult times. The sounds in the song bring a more vintage sound to disco beats, with a constant static sound of a vinyl record playing behind the beat, and the harmonious chorus from Lil Nas X, this song has him reaching into different areas with his voice that weren't touched on during the rest of the album. The talent needed to successfully pull off a multi-genre EP and not sound awful is hard, especially coming off the success from "Old Town Road". The follow up of that song, while it is nearly impossible to replicate, was fairly successful and made fans look forward to the next Lil Nas X creation. With an album coming up, I reviewed this EP as anticipation for the LP release. I will surely be reviewing that as soon as possible after its release and hopefully it can continue to cement Lil Nas X as a legendary artist capable of many different types of music...
Favorite Songs: "Old Town Road - Remix", "Panini", "Rodeo", "Kick It"
Least Favorite Songs: "Bring U Down"
Production Quality:
Mix = 7/10
Innovation = 9/10
Songwriting Quality:
Arrangement = 7/10
Lyricism = 7/10
Instrumentation Quality:
Vocal Timbre = 7.5/10
Instrumental Timbre = 8/10 (Instruments tell the feel of the song for each track)
Group Chemistry = 5.5/10
Overall Likability:
My Personal Rating = 9/10
Overall Rating: 7.6/10
Any confusion on how the rating is weighted/calculated, please look at my "About" page.
Remember this is all my opinion! Let me know if you agree, disagree or have any comments!