EP Review: Lil Nas X - 7
Lil Nas X has taken the world by storm since “Old Town Road” gained popularity in April after the 20 year old from ATL was signed by Colombia Records. The song first debuted on SoundCloud in December of 2018. “Old Town Road” has stayed on Billboards charts staying at No. 1 for 12 weeks now. Lil Nas X teased his fans by dropping “Panini” on June 20th, 3 days before his EP was scheduled to drop. Almost instantly “Panini” was trending on Twitter and receiving plenty of positive feedback. One interesting aspect of the “Panini” is that many noticed it has a similar melody to a song by Nirvana “ In Bloom.” If you listen closely to the notes of the chorus in “Panini,” you can see the similarity. Kurt Cobain actually received songwriting credits on “Panini.”
The Next day on the 21st, “7 EP” officially dropped with Lil Nas X having features as Cardi B and Billy Ray Cyrus. Some of my personal favourites are, of course, “Panini,” “Old Town Road - Remix” & “Rodeo”. The EP starts with the famous “Old Town Road - Remix” with Billy Ray Cyrus getting you familiar with the sound that Lil Nas X likes to show the audience. The typical 808’s you hear in any Hip Hop songs mixed with the old school country banjo sounds (mixed by YoungKio) branches out into bringing two different genres and mashing them up.
Lil Nas X continues with mashing up more genres by bringing the classic American/Alternative Rock to help out the Synthetic Chords of the song. “F9mily (You&Me)” is a different side of Lil Nas X we hear. The song sounds like you would hear at a rock show with a fast paced tempo being led by guitar strings and supported by a drum in the background. Lil Nas X dips into the Rock sound, as many great artist have done such as Lil Wayne. "Kick it” takes us into the future with a EDM/Dance sound. Lil Nas X has the heavy auto-tune sound to rap over that gives it the atmospheric sound Travis Scott is known for. Producer TAKE A DAYTRIP gets our heart racing with the high speed chase guitar sound bringing us out west to the country side. Lil Nas X brings out Cardi B for the final verse to bring her high speed rapping to splash in our hip hop sound. We jump back into the past with Lil Nas X famous genre hopper. To me it sounds like i just played “Smells Like Teen Spirit” by Nirvana and then we hear Lil Nas X start the chorus with the help of Ryan Tedder as back vocals. Ryan Tedder treats us with a guitar solo. When Lil Nas X goes on tour, he should definitely have Tedder bless the audience with this guitar solo. The Second to last song “C7osure (You Like)” is more of a laid back sound. It’s Coffee Shop sounds with a consistent drum to compliment the piano sounds. The chill vibe we receive from the song is definitely refreshing after the rest of the songs on the EP. The EP ends with the original “Old Town Road”, an all-time hall of fame pop hit that years from now people will ask about and it’s a moment in time that if you weren’t around you wouldn’t understand.
Overall for Lil Nas X first EP “7” i would give a 4.5/5. Lil Nas X touched many genres of music throughout the track list but cuts us short with all short songs with the longest only being 2:43 and shortest being 1:53. I personally have a very mixed music taste and i enjoyed all the different sounds. Will Lil Nas X influence other names to start mixing genres? Only time will tell. You can stream “7” below.
Reviewed By: Wyatt Smit