Bad Habits (Nav Album)

Bad Habits is the second studio album by Canadian rapper Nav. It was released through XO Records and Republic Records on March 22, 2019. The album features guest appearances from The Weeknd, Meek Mill, Young Thug, Gunna, and Lil Durk. The deluxe edition was released four days later on March 26, 2019. It features additional guest appearances from Future and then-XO labelmate duo 88Glam. It follows his previous album, '' Reckless'' (2018), as well as his unofficial ''Brown Boy'' EP, released a week and a day before ''Bad Habits''. The album debuted at number one on the ''Billboard'' Canadian Albums chart as well as the US ''Billboard'' 200, becoming Nav's first chart-topper on both.

Background

On March 17, 2019, CashXO released NAV's Brown Boy EP which consisted of 5 tracks exclusively on Audiomack announced the album's title and release date.

The cover art was revealed via Instagram on March 19, 2019, with the tracklist on March 21, 2019.

A track titled "Habits" featuring Lil Uzi Vert was supposed to be released on the album. According to Nav, the heads of Lil Uzi Vert's label, DJ Drama and Don Cannon, would not legally clear Lil Uzi Vert's verse. In a statement to ''Complex'', DJ Drama said, "It's not about the money because we turned down $100k."

On March 26, 2019, the deluxe version of ''Bad Habits'' was released, which features new guest appearances from Future and 88Glam, alongside all the songs from the ''Brown Boy EP''. The originally unreleased track "Habits" which was supposed to feature Lil Uzi Vert, was also released as a solo version. According to Nav, he recorded Lil Uzi Vert's verse himself and put it on the song.

Singles

The album's lead single, " Know Me", was released for digital download on November 2, 2018. The song was produced by Pro Logic and Austin Powerz. The music video was released on November 8, 2018. The music video was directed by David Camarena. The song peaked at number sixty-three on the ''Billboard'' Canadian Hot 100. " Price on My Head", featuring Canadian singer-songwriter the Weeknd, was released as the second single on March 26, 2019, the same day that Nav released the deluxe edition of the album. " Tap", featuring American rapper Meek Mill, was released as the third single on May 7, 2019.

Critical reception

''Bad Habits'' received mixed reviews from music critics, citing a lack of boldness and originality. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, the album received an average score of 52, based on 4 reviews, indicating "mixed or average" reviews.

Reed Jackson of ''Pitchfork'' wrote, "At its best, he album'ssongs are serviceable bangers to nod off in the club to; at its worst, it's a collection of strange admissions that, thanks to Nav's affinity for taking himself too seriously, come off cringe-worthy." Reviewer Riley Wallace of ''Exclaim!'' praised specific tracks such as "Tension" and "Why You Crying Mama", though he felt that the album ultimately "fails to either navigate into new territory long enough to hold attention or do anything to further NAV as an artist." AllMusic criticized Nav's lack of originality, uninspired lyrical content, and the repetitive nature of the beats on the album, describing it as going from "generic fun to mind-numbing tedium."

Commercial performance

''Bad Habits'' debuted at number one on the US ''Billboard'' 200 with 82,000 album-equivalent units, of which 24,000 were pure album sales in its first week. The reason for its high sales was mostly due to merchandise bundles which resulted in about 20,000 extra sales. It became Nav's first US number-one album. The album also accumulated a total of 79.08 million on-demand audio streams for the album's songs, making it the most streamed album of the week. In its second week, the album dropped to number six on the chart, earning an additional 35,000 units that week. On May 20, 2020, the album was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for combined sales and album-equivalent units of over 500,000 units.

In Nav's home country of Canada, ''Bad Habits'' debuted at number one on the Canadian Albums Chart, selling 10,000 album-equivalent units in its first week. On June 26, 2019, the album was certified gold by Music Canada (MC) for sales of over 40,000 copies in Canada.

Track listing

Credits adapted from Tidal.

Notes
* signifies a co-producer
* signifies an additional producer
* signifies an uncredited co-producer
* "Go to Hell", "8 to a 4", "Never Know", "OK" (featuring Lil Durk), and "Athlete" were originally from Nav's ''Brown Boy'' EP, that his manager Cash leaked eight days before the album's release.

Personnel

All programming and keyboards are credited to the producers of each track, except where noted.

Musicians
* WondaGurl – keyboards , programming
* Money Musik – keyboards (track 3, 5, 7–9, 11–15, 21–24), programming (track 3, 5, 7–9, 11–15, 21–24)
* London on da Track – keyboards , programming
* Mixx – keyboards , programming
* Pro Logic – programming
* Austin Powerz – programming
* Wheezy – programming
* Frost -keyboards (track 5, 7, 11, 14, 21, 23-24) programming (track 5, 7, 11, 14, 21, 23-24)
* Mike Michael – keyboards
Technical
* Pro Logic – mixing , engineer
* Trouble Trouble – engineer
* Shin Kamiyama – engineer
* AlexOnWeed – engineer
* Ethan Stevens – engineer
* Mixx – engineer
* Chemist – engineer
* Chris Athens – mastering

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

References

{{Authority control

2019 albums
Nav (rapper) albums
Albums produced by Nav (rapper)
Albums produced by Cubeatz
Albums produced by WondaGurl
Albums produced by London on da Track
Albums produced by Tay Keith
Albums produced by Wheezy
Republic Records albums
XO (record label) albums