''7'' is the second

extended play An extended play (EP) is a Sound recording and reproduction, musical recording that contains more tracks than a Single (music), single but fewer than an album. Contemporary EPs generally contain up to eight tracks and have a playing time of 1 ...

(EP) and

major label "Big Three" music labels A record label or record company is a brand or trademark of music recordings and music videos, or the company that owns it. Sometimes, a record label is also a publishing company that manages such brands and t ...

debut by American rapper

Lil Nas X Montero Lamar Hill (born April 9, 1999), better known by his stage name Lil Nas X ( ), is an American rapper, singer, and songwriter. He rose to prominence with the release of his 2018 country rap single "Old Town Road," the longest-running nu ...

. The EP was released on June 21, 2019, by

Columbia Records Columbia Records is an American reco ...

. It was preceded by the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 number one single "

Old Town Road "Old Town Road" is the debut mainstream single by the American rapper and singer Lil Nas X, first released independently in December 2018. After gaining popularity, the single was re-released by Columbia Records in March 2019. He also recorded ...

" (both the original version and

Billy Ray Cyrus William Ray Cyrus ( ; born August 25, 1961) is an American singer, songwriter and actor. Having released 16 studio albums and 53 singles since 1992, he is known for his hit single "Achy Breaky Heart", which topped the U.S. Hot Country Songs cha ...

remix), " Panini", and "

Rodeo Rodeo () is a competitive equestrian sport that arose out of the working practices of cattle herding in Spain and Mexico, expanding throughout the Americas and to other nations. It was originally based on the skills required of the working vaqu ...

". The extended play features guest appearances from Cyrus,

Travis Barker Travis Landon Barker (born November 14, 1975) is an American musician, songwriter, and music producer who is the drummer for the rock band Blink-182. He has collaborated with hip hop artists, is a member of the rap rock group Transplants ...

, and

Cardi B Belcalis Marlenis Cephus (; born October 11, 1992), known professionally as Cardi B, is an American rapper. Noted for her unfiltered public image and lyrics, Cardi B is one of the most successful female rappers. From 2015 to early 2017, she ga ...

. Despite receiving a mixed reception from critics, ''7'' received six

Grammy Award The Grammy Awards, stylized as GRAMMY, and often referred to as The Grammys, are awards presented by The Recording Academy of the United States to recognize outstanding achievements in music. They are regarded by many as the most prestigious ...

nominations, including a nomination for Album of the Year. At under 19 minutes, it is the shortest album release to be nominated for the Grammy Award.

Background

While recording the album

deliberately avoided producing an album full of

country rap Country rap (also called country hip-hop, country hick-hop, and sometimes hick-hop) is a fusion genre of popular music, mixing country music with hip-hop–style singing or rapping. History Prototypes Early influences on the emergence of count ...

songs, not wanting to be pigeonholed by the success of "

". Despite this, he would include one other country song, "

", only after producers Take a Daytrip earned his trust by giving him the beat for " Panini". Several trap beats were also sent to the singer for consideration, which he rejected as he did not want to be a "trap artist". While in the process of recording the songs Lil Nas X posted previews of both "Panini" and "Rodeo" to his

social media Social media are interactive technologies that facilitate the Content creation, creation, information exchange, sharing and news aggregator, aggregation of Content (media), content (such as ideas, interests, and other forms of expression) amongs ...

accounts before either song were completely written. This caused some problems for producers Take a Daytrip as the popularity of these snippets meant that much of the work had to be "locked in" so the resulting songs would match the previews. Lil Nas X announced the ''7'' EP on May 18, 2019, on all social media platforms along with its June 2019 release date. This teaser included the snippet of a song described by ''

Spin Spin or spinning most often refers to: * Spin (physics) or particle spin, a fundamental property of elementary particles * Spin quantum number, a number which defines the value of a particle's spin * Spinning (textiles), the creation of yarn or thr ...

''s Rob Arcand as "singing a trap-pop hook through a slurred

AutoTune Auto-Tune is audio processor software released on September 19, 1997, by the American company Antares Audio Technologies. It uses a proprietary device to measure and correct pitch in music. It operates on different principles from the vocoder ...

drawl". Lil Nas X stated that the EP would include a collaboration with "one of isfavorite artists ever".

Singles

" was released as the lead single from the EP on December 3, 2018, peaking at the top of the US ''Billboard'' Hot 100. A

remix A remix, also sometimes called reorchestration or rework, is a piece of media which has been altered or contorted from its original state by adding, removing, or changing pieces of the item. A song, piece of artwork, book, poem, or photograph ca ...

featuring

was released as a single on April 5, 2019, spending a record 19 weeks at the top. " Panini" was released as the third single from the EP on June 20, 2019, the day before the EP was released, and would peak at number five on the Hot 100. "

", originally with

, was not made a single until a remix featuring

Nas Nas (born 1973) is the stage name of American rapper Nasir Jones. Nas, NaS, or NAS may also refer to: Aviation * Nasair, a low-cost airline carrier and subsidiary based in Eritrea * National Air Services, an airline in Saudi Arabia ** Nas Air (S ...

was released on January 27, 2020, one day after it was performed at the Grammys. The remix was used for the music video in which Nas makes an appearance.

Critical reception

''7'' received mixed reviews from critics. At

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, ''7'' received an

average In colloquial, ordinary language, an average is a single number or value that best represents a set of data. The type of average taken as most typically representative of a list of numbers is the arithmetic mean the sum of the numbers divided by ...

score of 57, based on 11 reviews, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Mikael Wood at the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...

'' considered it among the best debut efforts of the year, calling the songs on ''7'' "vivid, funny, full of feeling and supremely catchy, even if they don't quite offer a clear picture of who Lil Nas X is offstage or off-screen." Brittany Spanos, writing for ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. The magazine was first known fo ...

'' praised the EP's "carefully balanced earnestness and playfulness," but agreed with Wood: "Still, it leaves more questions than answers about what and who Lil Nas X wants to be." In a mixed review, Garrett Gravley at ''

Consequence of Sound ''Consequence'' (previously ''Consequence of Sound'') is an independently owned New York-based online magazine featuring news, editorials, and reviews of music, movies, and television. History ''Consequence of Sound'' was founded in Septem ...

'' described the EP as a "musical Chex Mix — lightweight and best consumed in selective increments, but also strangely addictive." Other reviews were more negative. Brian Josephs at ''

Entertainment Weekly ''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American online magazine, digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, ...

'' criticized its "failed versatility", summarizing by saying, "With ''7'', there's too little conviction to tell if a full project is something Lil Nas X wants to do. At best, there's a set of half-considered songs." Alphonse Pierre gave it a poor review for ''

Pitchfork A pitchfork or hay fork is an agricultural tool used to pitch loose material, such as hay, straw, manure, or leaves. It has a long handle and usually two to five thin tines designed to efficiently move such materials. The term is also applie ...

'', commenting, "For the entirety of ''7'', it's unclear if Lil Nas X actually likes music ..The EP ends up being a set of nothingness ..content made for the sake of justifying its existence."

Accolades

Commercial performance

''7'' debuted at number two on the US ''Billboard'' 200 with 77,000

album-equivalent unit The album-equivalent unit, or album equivalent, often shortened to just unit, is a sales metric in the music industry that defines the number of streaming media, songs streamed and music download, songs downloaded equal to one Record sales, tradi ...

s (including 4,000 pure album sales). In its second week the EP remained at number two on ''Billboard'' 200 with 62,800 units.

Track listing

Adapted from Tidal. Notes * signifies a miscellaneous producer * signifies an uncredited producer Samples * "Old Town Road (Remix)" and "Old Town Road" contain a sample of " 34 Ghosts IV", written by

Trent Reznor Michael Trent Reznor (born May 17, 1965) is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and composer. He came to prominence as the founder, lead singer, multi-instrumentalist, and primary songwriter of the industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails. T ...

and

Atticus Ross Atticus Matthew Cowper Ross (born 16 January 1968) is an English musician, composer, record producer, and audio engineer. He is best known for his work with American musician Trent Reznor, with whom he first worked on the musical project Tapewo ...

, and performed by

Nine Inch Nails Nine Inch Nails, commonly abbreviated as NIN (stylized as NIИ), is an American industrial rock band formed in Cleveland, Ohio in 1988. Its members are the singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and producer Trent Reznor and his frequent col ...

. * "Panini" contains an interpolation of "

In Bloom "In Bloom" is a song by American rock band Nirvana, written by vocalist and guitarist Kurt Cobain. It appears as the second track on the band's second album, ''Nevermind'', released by DGC Records in September 1991. The ''Nevermind'' version ...

", written by

Kurt Cobain Kurt Donald Cobain (February 20, 1967 – ) was an American musician. He was the lead vocalist, guitarist, primary songwriter, and a founding member of the grunge band Nirvana (band), Nirvana. Through his angsty songwriting and anti-establis ...

, and performed by

Nirvana Nirvana, in the Indian religions (Jainism, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Sikhism), is the concept of an individual's passions being extinguished as the ultimate state of salvation, release, or liberation from suffering ('' duḥkha'') and from the ...

Personnel

Credits adapted from Tidal.

Musicians

– lead vocals, production *

– lead vocals *

– featured vocals * Jocelyn "Jozzy" Donald – background vocals *

Ryan Tedder Ryan Benjamin Tedder (born June 26, 1979) is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and record producer. He is best known as the co-founder, frontman, and lead vocalist for the pop rock band OneRepublic, while also serving as a prolific cont ...

– background vocals , production , bass , drums , guitar * Zach Skelton – background vocals , production , bass , drums , electric guitar * YoungKio – production *

– production *

– background vocals, production * Take a Daytrip – production *

– drums, production * Bizness Boi – production * fwdslxsh – production * Alone In A Boy Band – production * Roy Lenzo – production * Russ Chell – production *

Boi-1da Matthew Jehu Samuels (born October 12, 1986), known professionally as Boi-1da (a play on Boy Wonder) is a Canadian record producer and songwriter based in Toronto, Ontario. He is an in-house producer for Drake's OVO Sound label and has prod ...

– production *

Allen Ritter Allen Raphael Ritter (born June 19, 1988) is an American record producer and songwriter. A frequent collaborator of fellow producers Boi-1da, Vinylz, and Sevn Thomas, Ritter has worked in production for high-profile hip hop and contemporary R&B, ...

– production * Dot da Genius – co-production * Abaz – miscellaneous production * X-Plosive – miscellaneous production * Jahaan Sweet – miscellaneous production * Stephen "Johan" Feigenbaum – strings * Yasmeen Al-Mazeedi – violin * Eddie Benjamin – bass * Danny Win – saxophone

Technical

* Andrew "VoxGod" Bolooki – vocal production, mixing * Joe Grasso – engineering * Thomas Cullison – assistant engineering , recording * Andy Rodríguez – assistant engineering * Jeremie Inhaber – assistant engineering * Robin Florent – assistant engineering * Scott Desmarais – assistant engineering * Cinco – recording * Denzel Baptiste – recording * Matt Malpass – recording * Jordan "DJ Swivel" Young – mixing * Joe Grasso – mixing * Eric Lagg – mastering * Colin Leonard – mastering

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

References

{{Authority control 2019 debut EPs Lil Nas X EPs Albums produced by Atticus Ross Albums produced by Boi-1da Albums produced by Dot da Genius Albums produced by Ryan Tedder Albums produced by Travis Barker Albums produced by Trent Reznor Columbia Records EPs