North West is a 12 year old producer, singer/songwriter, rapper, actress & music video director from Los Angeles, California known for being the eldest child of one of my top 10 producers of all-time: Ye formerly known as Kanye West. She would make her musical debut on “Talking / Once Again” & “Bomb” off ¥$’ full-length debut Vultures & it’s sequel respectively, the latter being my least favorite track on Vultures 2personally. I did however enjoy her appearance on “Childlike Things” off FKA twigs’ 3rd album Eusexua & the “blink twice” interlude she produced for Skaiwater’s 3rd album wonderful, signing to gamma. briefly after announcing it’s distribution deal with YZY SND to drop her debut extended play ahead of her own full-length studio debut The Elementary School Dropout.
The self-produced intro “H0w Sh0uld ! f33l” opens with this rage-inducing beat sampling “Monster” by Meg & Dia to talk about everyone only seeing her appeal because who her parents are whereas “D!e” fuses hypertrap & pop rap to discuss her rockstar lifestyle. The title track shifts gears with a full rock instrumental to end the 1st half of the EP, talking about having so much people around her except she feels like it’s all fake because of their shadiness.
“Th!s tim3” gets the 2nd leg of n0rth4evr going by embracing a more industrial sound taking accountability for fumbling when this person’s heart was on the line & having no one by her side other than some bands while “W0ah” gets on a kawaii trap metal vibe talking about signing autographs in elementary school as well as running the world. “Aishite (愛して)” ends the EP with a hypertrap ode to 愛して愛して愛して by きくお featuring 初音ミク.
It can a bit blatantly obvious that North West shows us who some of her artistic influences are like Playboi Carti as well as Molly Santana & Bktherula to only name a few, but I’d consider n0rth4evr to be a decent beginning to her musical career even if I think it won’t be until she’s a bit older when her full artistic potential fully reveals itself & gives us something more groundbreaking. Her production’s more rage-oriented than the chipmunk soul direction she went for on “Punch Drunk” off her father’s latest album Bully & the boastful teenage angst throughout the lyrics was somewhat expected.
Score: 3/5
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