The Biggest Takeaways From Lil Nas X's Debut EP ‘7’

Image via Getty/Frazer Harrison

For the past three months, toddlers across America have been playing "Old Town Road" on repeat, which is one of many reasons the song has been breaking so many streaming records. On 7, Lil Nas X caters to this demographic, delivering a collection of fun, goofy songs that will play well with his youngest listeners. On "Panini," he gives us Kidz Bop bars as he raps, "Ayy, Panini, don't you be a meanie/Thought you wanted me to go up/Why you tryna keep me teeny?" Recess is about to go up.

Oh, you thought Lil Nas X was going to keep rapping over $30 beats from YouTube? Nah, not after signing a major deal with Columbia Records. Instead, he got in the studio with heavy-hitters like Travis Barker, Boi-1da, Dot Da Genius, Ryan Tedder, and Take A Daytrip, who laced him with a set of beats that range from hip-hop to pop punk. And Cardi B came through with the project's lone guest feature outside of Billy Ray Cyrus. Nas X might be new to music, and figuring things out along the way, but his collaborators aren't.

Over the past few months, Lil Nas X has been very self-referential and meta, routinely sharing messages on social media about his potential fate as a one-hit wonder and admitting to bombarding fans with posts about "Old Town Road." On "Kick It," we hear more of that, as he directly references the Billboard chart controversy that helped fuel his success: "Seen you on the TV, heard that Billboard took your chartin' place/Heard your snippets on IG, man, tell me what's the droppin' dates."

7 is a fun debut EP from an interesting new artist who has some good ideas, but it's hurt by the massive expectations placed on it due to the success of "Old Town Road." The new songs never reach the highs of that one, but that's a bar that emerging artists usually aren't asked to reach. If you go into this expecting a fully formed album of No. 1 hits, you'll be disappointed. There are some clunkers here, and some of the songs feel like bland attempts at turning Nas X into an artist who can appeal to anyone and everyone. But if you remove expectations from the equation and hear the potential he shows when he tries new things on songs like "Panini" and "Rodeo," it's a worthwhile release from a promising young artist.

Everyone has an opinion about this EP, but one thing will be undeniable: the commercial success. With both the original and remixed versions of "Old Town Road" on its tracklist, the project will likely be eligible for immediate gold and platinum certifications because of the huge numbers the song has already accumulated. The EP will also likely do well on the charts, too, as curiosity will drive hordes of listeners (fans and skeptics alike) to give it a spin. The only thing that might hurt it on the charts is its short seven-song tracklist. So just how well will it do? We won't find out if he debuts at No. 1 until next week, but immediately after its release, the album was already No. 1 on Apple Music (a fact Nas X proudly shared with his followers).