If you’re familiar with hip hop and/or rap, you’re most certainly familiar with Nav.
Navraj Singh Goraya, better known by his stage name Nav, is a Canadian rapper and producer. Born and raised in Toronto, he often refers to himself as the “brown boy” due to his Punjabi descent. He first started gaining popularity in 2017 when Kylie Jenner posted a video to her Instagram story playing Nav’s “Myself” in the background for her hundreds of millions of followers to see.
In February 2017, the self-proclaimed “brown boy” signed to The Weeknd’s XO label.
The Tough Reality of Fame
But in January of last year, Nav almost quit music.
After rap superstar Lil Uzi Vert announced he was quitting music, Nav said he was going to follow suit, posting to his Instagram story “sometimes quitting better than continuing.” Lil Uzi reposted Nav’s story to his own saying that he’s always had his back.
Fans didn’t have to wait long for his return though, as Nav dropped his album “Bad Habits” March 22nd of last year. The thirty-year-old rapper has produced five albums, with two of them, one of which being Bad Habits, earning Certified Gold. His most recent album, Good Intentions, reached #1 on the charts in both Canada and America.
Good Intentions has big-name features such as close friend Lil Uzi Vert, Young Thug, Future, Travis Scott, Don Toliver, and Lil Durk. Despite the fact that his albums continuously do good numbers and he continuously draws in big-name features, Nav gets a lot of hate.
It’s hard to pinpoint exactly why he gets so much hate. Browsing through comments on Reddit and Genius.com, there seems to be a few reasons.
“Monotone voice, boring, generic flows, and the same lyrics on every song. The only thing that is good about him is his beats and maybe 2-4 songs that are actually good, the rest are garbage,” wrote one user on Reddit.
“He sounds like a robot that makes me depressed when I listen to him. He’s corny as hell too, but that’s just me,” wrote another user on Genius.
Despite the hate he gets, Nav doesn’t let it get to him; “No one comes up to me and says your album sucks. They only want a picture,” he says. “If I got lost in haters, I’d f–kin’ be miserable.”
After his most recent album reached #1 in multiple countries, and his album before that earned Certified Gold, not even Nav’s haters can argue that he pulls in insane numbers every time he drops.
With a net worth of 4 million dollars, the success speaks for itself.
