NAV

Navraj Singh Goraya, better known as NAV, was born in Toronto in 1989, but he didn’t pay much attention to the exploding Canadian hip-hop scene until he was in the middle of it. NAV produced before he started rapping—Drake used some of his work on the 2015 Meek Mill diss track “Back To Back.” But almost as soon as NAV picked up a mic, he connected with fans drawn to his silky vocals, quotable lyrics and flexible musical style. The self-identified “Brown Boy” rapper of Punjabi descent first stepped out from behind the scenes via SoundCloud with the 2016 viral hits “Myself” and “Up”. Fellow Canuck The Weeknd liked what he heard and signed him to his XO record label. NAV came out of the gate strong with two mixtapes in 2017—an eponymous release and a collaboration with Metro Boomin, Perfect Timing. NAV continued his hot streak with his 2018 debut album, Reckless, which cemented his reputation for hitting the high notes and networking his way into big-name collaborations. That charisma seems to know no bounds as NAV convinced Meek Mill to appear on his 2019 album, Bad Habits. NAV has a hustler’s mentality, evidenced by his demanding schedule. In 2020 alone, he released Good Intentions and Emergency Tsunami. Even when he's on vacation, he’s working. He told Apple Music that his 2020 track “Turks” came to fruition while he was at the beach. “I started rapping on it, then Gunna overheard it, and Travis blessed it with a verse.”