Analytic Dreamz: Notorious Mass Effect - "NAV - OMW2 REXDALE"

Episode Date: March 28, 2025

Linktree: https://linktr.ee/AnalyticJoin Analytic Dreamz on Notorious Mass Effect as we dive into NAV’s fifth studio album, "OMW2 Rexdale," released March 28, 2025, under XO Records. This marks NAV’s first full-length project since 2022’s "Demons Protected By Angels," honoring his Rexdale, Toronto roots. Featuring 14-15 tracks with artists like Don Toliver, Playboi Carti, and Metro Boomin, the 36-minute album blends moody synths and sharp production. Available in digital, vinyl, and CD formats, "OMW2 Rexdale" reflects NAV’s journey from bedroom producer to global rap star. Tune in for an in-depth breakdown!Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Ladies and gentlemen, the brown boy is back. And before you call me racist, that's what he calls himself. Now, with that being said, of course, I'm a huge fan of Nav and the way he makes music. I've covered him before in the podcast when I covered the track he was on as far as calling with Metro Boomin and his across the Spider-Verse soundtrack, which, you know, to be transparent. Metro Boomeran is very disrespectful when it comes to gaining accolades at award shows. Now, of course, nominations is one thing, but why can't this brother win some of the categories that he's in when he's made Spider or Across the Spider-Verse soundtrack? He's made We Don't Trust You. He made We Still Don't Trust You, which if we really think about it, We Don't Trust You is unequivocally one of the most important projects of last year, arguably because it started the greatest rap battle of all time.

Now, without that out the way, of course, this is specifically getting into Nav as he has his new album, titled All My Way to Rexdale. And this came out today. But the thing I was going to point out was his single. Oh, Rexdale. Yeah, Rexdale was the single for this album. And essentially, when Rexdale came out, it wasn't the most successful. But it did end up on the charts peaking in number 87, as far as 87th, most popular track in the world at that particular time, October 14, 2024.

Now, that marks his 13th hot 100 entry of the decade. Now, of course, I enjoy NAV's music. But the main thing about quality and sales is that it doesn't always align or even correlate. Sometimes you sell a lot and it's trash. Sometimes you don't sell a lot and you make good music. I think for NAV, he falls on that on the latter part of that as when it comes to him making quality music in my opinion he doesn't have the sales to back it up especially when you compare him to his peers the main thing i think helped him out for one of his releases which if you

don't know his last album was released back in 2022 and it was demons protected protected by angels when it comes to nath in that particular album i think it was that one or was another one it was maybe i don't know if his good intentions bad habits one of his one of his albums right because of him not having the most it's not like trash sales it's just for the most part it's not a wow factor to his first week sales right because one time he ended up selling merchandise so this is i know it was back in the day before billboard changed the rules to where you can't do this anymore but he sold like a v-long shirt or shoes or something like that along with this album to the point where now people start to call out people selling merchandise instead of actual music more

notoriously when Nikki came out and accused Travis Scott of doing the same thing for Astor World when he was selling a whole shop of socks, shirts, and hoodies to the point when he beat out Nicky Minaj in the battle for the highest first week sales for the number one album right so it's a very big deal and Billboard looked into it and guess what they took it away so when it comes to Nav I think him having actual purchases helps him but it was due to a lot of merchandise being sold so i think for this particular album it's going to be a very pivotal point of nav's career to showcase if he could have around what he usually sells which is around i just looked it up demon protected by angel's sold 62 000 first week right

so if he can't end up having around that or even higher i think that would be a w because him selling 20 to 30,000, which it won't be terrible, but Toy Lane's just sold around 24,000 first week sales. Young boy had 23,000 first week sales. He definitely needs to do higher than that. Not saying he's a bigger artist in those particular artists, but he is in the free world. So I believe the marketing strategy. And of course, with him having Playboy Cardi on this album, him having Metro on this album, Don Tolliver. I'm not seeing the weekend.

I believe, I thought I heard the weekend on one of the snippets, but whatever. maybe he doesn't have them listed. But having NAV sell that amount of units is very pivotal to let people know that he can sell music outside of selling merchandise, right? If you didn't know, he's under XO recordings, which is the weekend's label. So with this also being a division of UMG recordings, UMG is the big dog and their subsidiary Republic is the one or all the ones who sign NAV. So he definitely has a major machine behind him. them I think it's all lining up for him to have respectable numbers first week I just had to put it on front street how in the past NAF has been one of the artists who obviously game the system it's

not the wrong with game in the system everybody doesn't but to put it in such a blatant fashion that you're obviously selling a merchandise rather than music I think is distasteful so him with this album i haven't seen actually i see shirts of rexdale and i actually see cdies and stuff so that's interesting but cds is one thing the shirts and hoodies won't be counted because you know the new rules will billboard so regardless we're going to actually see what he can do on his own when it comes to putting out music so with that being said i think this album is going to be phenomenal i'm going to listen to the whole thing like i said i personally enjoyed nav's music just wanted to bring up that instance of him obviously gaming the system with selling socks, shirts, and hoodies and accounting.

And now with Billboard taking that away, we're going to really see where his musical stature is as far as the masses and see how engaged they are with this particular release because it took him three years to put out this album. And I believe that was building anticipation. So technically, I could see around 60 to 70,000 first week sales. but that will be a lot, especially in this new age of Billboard really clarifying where your sales are coming from. So I think that's the ceiling, but if he goes below that, it's fine. I just think 20 to 30,000 would be ultimately an L for the rollout of this album.

So that being said, click my link to your bio. Let me know one of my social media is. What do you think about NAV's latest album on my way to Rexdale, now being out on DSPs? if you've listened to the album what is your favorite track off of the album