Before Nav would be UP in Some Way and become a Champion just by being Himself
Before he would sign to The Weeknd’s XO Label
Before he would collab with Metro (Boomin), Gucci (Mane), Gunna, Travis Scott, (Lil) Uzi,
and even get a cosign from Nas
Before He would have over 500k followers on Twitter, over 500k on Soundcloud, over 800k
subscribers on YouTube, and close to 1.5 million followers on Instagram at the time of this
recording
He told Paper magazine in a 2017 interview
"I wish there was a button to turn off the whole famous thing.”
And for the most part, NAV has been able to keep a pretty low profile.
When we did our first BeforeThey Were Famous on NAV a little over a year ago, little to
nothing was known about the Canadian artist.
Since then, he’s not only made his mark on music, but he’s also done a few online
interviews and a couple of radio stops.
But the man still doesn’t have a single full-length interview, besides a short
video with genius and the classic video you saw at the beginning of this.
When Real 92.3 sat down for a rare radio interview with NAV in LA, they asked him why he keeps
things so mysterious, and he said this.
Well, since this is Before They Were Famous we’ll do our best to try and peel back some of those
layers. At least a couple of them.
We did some digging, did some crowdsourcing and asked some inside people, and I think
we’ll be able to tell NAV’s story better than it’s been told anywhere else online so far.
What’s going on good people in the comment section?
I hope you’re having one Hecht of a day, my name is Jeremy Hecht and today I’ll be
taking you through the life and career of fellow Canadian, NAV before fame.
If you’re new here I’m the LA host for this channel and as always, the motto is better
with every video!
So let me know how I did and who I should cover next in the comments down below and
let me know who to cover next. I’ll try to reply to as many people as possible within the first few hours of uploading.
I really do appreciate all of your support and we appreciate all of your support of this channel.
This video is brought to you by our good friends at Kandy Pen.
Shout out to them!
We’ve covered other Toronto artists like PartyNextDoor, The Weeknd and of course Michael just
did an epic bio on Drake so you gotta check that out after you finish watching this one.
We’re also going to start asking a question at the beginning of the video and you’ll
have to stick around until the end to find out the answer.
Today’s question is:
“What do NAV’s parents think of his music?”
But without any more talking, let’s get into the video! *Clap*
NAV was born Navraj Singh Goraya on November 3, 1989 in Rexdale, Toronto, Ontario, which
he calls one of the roughest parts of the city.
NAV was the youngest of three kids with two older sisters and says since he was lucky
enough to grow up with two parents in his life, things went pretty smoothly for him.
His parents are from Punjab, which boarders Pakistan in the northern region of India.
Nav’s mother was involved in computer manufacturing and his father worked as a forklift driver
in a Canadian factory.
In the third grade, NAV’s mom bought him a boom box for Christmas and he would lay
the boom box on his chest and listen to Indian music all day.
NAV’s uncle was a popular singer in India and later took NAV to his first studio session once
he started making beats.
but for the most part, NAV kept to himself and kept out of trouble.
He says the neighborhood he grew up in was very diverse and he was around a lot of different people
from Chinese to Caribbean and a lot of Jamaican people.
This influenced him to say the N word in his early music but he later apologized and said
that he would no longer be using the word in any of his songs.
He said:
It's like when I was making music, I wasn't making music thinking that I'm going to blow
up and become a famous artist, I was making music and rapping with my friends where we
used the word freely.
When it came to a global scale, I saw a little bit of backlash and I pulled back.
I don't need to use that word to make it far.
Growing up, NAV went back and listened to all of the classic hip-hop albums like Jay
Z, Tupac and Biggie, with Nas being his favorite because of his storytelling abilities.
He would eventually get a cosign from Nas in the form of an Instagram post.
Later on, he was bumping Gucci Mane, Future and would even play Travis Scott’s
album in his old Honda.
Crazy how the world works.
He told Tim Westowood that he used to watch a bunch of interviews online to get inspired
and cited Tim’s interview with Dipset as an inspiration for him wanting to get into the music game
This next piece of information was crowdsourced from the comment section of our last before
they were famous video.
Someone commented saying they grew up with NAV and they said:
“The house he lived at is across the street from Sunnydale Acres Park.
His parents still live there.
He went to West Humber Junior Middle School until grade 8 then Thistletown Collegiate
Institute from 9-12.”
I mean, both are school’s in Toronto, so it checks out.
Who says the comment section is never good for anything!
Even though NAV was a poor student, he was one of the only people in his friend group
who graduated high school.
Although it did take him an extra year to do so.
While in high school, after seeing people make mashups online, NAV began stitching together.
popular songs
But then he decided to start making his own beats using Sony’s ACID software when he
was 16 years old.
He also said he was using Logic Pro and his macbook later on.
His friends would freestyle over the beats he was making at school and he got some notoriety.
He started working with local artists and building his sound.
At the time he was only a producer and was going by beatsbynav
He describes himself as someone who used to really
like attention and he told Complex:
“I became, like, pretty much the coolest kid in high school because I had started making
beats for local rappers,”
Eventually, he started writing songs over his own beats, but didn’t release them yet.
He recorded demo versions of some of those songs and sent one of them as a reference
track to one of his artist friends:
After graduation he would work odd jobs while perfecting his craft of making beats.
He went through periods of giving up on music but always picked the MPC back up.
It was when he posted his song on soundcloud called “Take Me Simple” that he started
seeing real results with his music.
His unique sound that included drowsy flows over hard trap beats, and a beat that felt
inspired by the Toronto sound, the song started to catch on.
The song now has close to 15 million plays on soundcloud.
He kept putting out music online and people just kept listening.
His plays were going up by a 100 thousand every month at the time and NAV says he was
just waiting for the call that would change his life.
So a lot of people would ask, how do you go from just posting songs up on soundcloud and
out of nowhere getting 100k views and 100k plays at a time?
Well, I looked to the comments again.
Another one of the comments that was on our last before they were famous video said this:
“So nobody gone talk about how NAV gained a lot of popularity under some fake Post Malone songs?"
With SimplySpoons writing:
“Nobody is mentioning his genius marketing scheme…
There were a couple of channels on YT releasing a bunch of "unreleased" Post Malone songs..
People thought they were Post but they were actually Nav.
Songs like The Man and a lot of his earlier stuff.
These songs ended up getting tons of views and drove tons of traffic to Nav's soundcloud,
because the comments would say "this isn't post this is Nav.".
He probably had some soundcloud hype too but it all took off from there...
Genius man﻿”
So I looked into it, and there may be some truth to that being the reason that NAV’s
soundcloud blew up, because his songs were getting so big that Post Malone even tweeted
this at the time.
Eventually, the calls started coming in and a couple of labels flew NAV out to LA for
meetings.
But he turned down offers from a few different labels and continued to have patience while
building his sound.
He didn’t feel like any of them were the right fit yet.
Through the underground Toronto music scene, NAV ran into artist Derek Wise and they would
become friends.
Derek was signed to The Weeknd’s label XO, and gave NAV’s number to The Weeknd’s
manager Amir Esmailian, who is better known as Cash.
NAV got a call from Cash and told him to fly out to LA the next day.
He says once he got there, the two clicked instantly. He said the best advice he’s gotten from Cash is:
After feeling out the situation, NAV inked a deal with XO and republic records.
Once he signed with XO, he moved out of his mom’s house and began taking over.
NAV says The Weeknd really cares about his career and the two have become very close.
They even play basketball together.
I’d love to see Abel’s jumpshot actually… “someone that I look up to (is) The Weeknd.
Like my mom knows who he is.
I just want to reach that level where I'm a household name.”
Nav’s first big beat placement ended up becoming one of the biggest commercial diss
records of all time for Drake, and he was credited with producing for Back to Back.
He didn’t even know the song was gonna be Back to Back and at first NAV didn’t even
like the beat.
Apparently Drake didn’t even know who NAV was at the time.
Drake and 40 sped up the beat and it turned out to become the first diss track to be Grammy
nominated.
A couple months later, Drake became hip to NAV’s music though because he started to
play his songs on OVO sound radio.
“I was chilling at my cousin’s house, in the basement, smoking up and stuff.
We were playing video games, not even really listening to [OVO], it was just in the background.
And I heard my song.
I tripped out.”
I can’t even imagine what that would be like.
I remember the OVO sound radio days…
I kinda miss those, bring that back Drake.
His next big co-sign came from Kylie Jenner, when she played his song Myself on snapchat
and boosted his streams by over 300%.
I remember when Kylie Jenner was music’s most important A&R, using her snapchat as
a record label.
That was a joke by the way, cause some of you guys take my jokes way too seriously in the comments
and I'm just letting you know, I don't think Kylie Jenner was an A&R
Speaking of Kylie though,
NAV met Travis Scott through Cash and the two hung out four or five times before ever
making music.
It was actually Cash who found the beat for Biebs in The Trap on NAV’s computer and
said that they needed to use it.
It was that beat and his performance on the track that put NAV into a new light.
He even appeared in the music video for the song.
NAV says that he has to really feel people out before he gets close to them because of
how fake the industry is.
He says that his homie from back in the day who was riding with him in his $500 dollar
Honda, now comes with him everywhere he goes.
Although NAV would probably rather stay inside his house, he does leave to perform.
At first he said he was nervous on stage, telling paper magazine:
“In the beginning it was kind of rough.
I didn't know how to project my voice a certain way as I did in the studio.
As I got used to it I played back my videos of performances, and I feel really happy with
it.”
And rightfully so, because the first time he ever performed was when he was opening
up for Abel at the 02 Arena in London in front of 20,000 people.
Might not have turned the O2 into the O3 that night, but today NAV is a more confident performer.
Is it just me or is it getting a little smokey in here????
I’m gonna pass it off to Michael for a word from our sponsors!
Okay, so it’s time for my favorite part of the video that is specifically for the ladies out there
This is, Shoot your shot with NAV.
What are your chances at dating the rapper and what would a date look like with him?
Well in a recent interview, he said he’ll take you to McDonald’s on a date.
But, I have inside information and a former co-worker of mine actually went on a date
with NAV.
So here’s what she said, the two went to a Hookah Spot and not Mcdonald’s, so that’s
a little classier.
But, you better bring your wallet if you go on a date with NAV because they ending up
splitting the bill.
This was a couple of years ago before he blew up to the point he is at now, so,
I have a feeling that if you go out with NAV now, he might pay for your meal.
Alright, back to the video.
In 2017, NAV released his debut commercial project “NAV” where he let the world know
that he doesn’t pay anything for his sneakers because he’s NAV.
And from there, he took off.
Although his parents don’t quite understand his music, they’re happy that he is healthy
and doing what he loves.
And there is the answer to your question!
Recently, he moved out to LA where he occasionally still participates in the drug life but has
slowed down a little bit and says he only does it in moderation.
He pretty much just hits the studio and plays video games like WWE 2K and Fifa.
Right now, it doesn’t look like we’ll be seeing NAV in interviews anytime soon:
As for the rest of the story, well you know it because this is before they were famous!