Hi everyone, Ohthony Kaytano here, the Internet's busiest music nerd, and it's time for a review of this new EP from North West, N0rth4evr.

Here we have the debut EP from producer, songwriter, rapper, singer, daughter of Ye, formerly Kanye West, North West, who has released this project here through the gamma. label that her father has recently been working with for his BULLY record. And if you've been paying attention, North has been active, at least in in some capacity on social media for a minute now, though mostly through posts and appearances that seem heavily curated and orchestrated by her mother, social media maven and entrepreneur Kim Kardashian.

However, as time goes on, North doesn't seem content to snugly fit into your usual Kardashian influencer mold and clearly identifies with at least a bit more the artistic ambitions of her father, which has already led to some kind of peculiar crossovers, like that one-off feature she had on the recent FKA twigs record EUSEXUA, a track that while it did stick out like a sore thumb on the album, I thought was a pretty fun song.

North has also played minor roles in the music of her own father recently, too. But in the last year or so, she's clearly been working more on developing her own artistic identity, which, being honest, seems pretty heavily influenced by what's currently going on in the rage scene, with its confluence of aesthetics not only coming from the world of hip-hop, but alternative rock and metal too.

Because again, the sound and vibes that come off this record do span out pretty far beyond what you might hear on your average Carti clone album. Whether it be through the metal logo on the front of this project, some of the super heavy, very powerful metal guitars on this EP that feel like they could have landed on a recent project from Poppy, for example.

The opening track also features a vocal sample from an old Meg & Dia song, showing that clearly North or her collaborators are tapped into some MySpace emo from the mid-2000s. Occasionally on this project you will catch some emo trap flows à la Juice WRLD, grooves and kicks that feel more akin to some Jersey club stuff or hardstyle, hardcore techno in general, even if the BPMs aren't being cranked all the way up to the brink. So even at this very early stage in her catalog, regardless of how much inspiration here is being borrowed from her collaborators, North is still fusing together a pretty interesting combination of sounds, surpassing what you would normally think a 12-year-old artist is capable of.

And yes, as a reminder, North is currently 12. But like any 12-year-old, she most definitely is drowning a bit in her influences, and very obviously and directly building off of the things she likes. I also think in many ways she is still very much learning the art of songcraft, of song structure. The 6 tracks on this project are all shorties and fall just short of 12 minutes in length in total. But, y'know, rage isn't exactly known for the way it builds its tracks out, or for the length of those songs, usually. What I do know is that what we do hear in this mosh pit of different sounds and styles on this project, there are a lot of catchy moments. A surprising amount. Even if it's all kind of short-lived.

Again, with this introductory track, I do really love that Meg & Dia sample and the way it's kind of reappropriated here against these pounding, distorted kicks. The pacing and intensity are great, the way these metal guitars are placed throughout the track is really good. My real main issues with this song is that I feel like it really could have developed more, and North's vocals, if anything, could have been pushed up a bit in the mix. Also, this little "North-chan!" drop that sort of goes on throughout the entire project is absolutely fucking killing me.

Meanwhile, the song "D!e," in my opinion, is maybe this EP's closest chance at a real hit. The only thing maybe holding it back is, again, the vocals being as buried as they are in the mix, and maybe could have used a more expressive performance. Still, the choruses on this track are absolutely here, and the more I listen to this EP, the more I was looking forward to these lines like, "How am I younger than you?" with North being fully aware of where she is creatively right now at her age. Even with all the connections and resources that she currently has as a 12-year-old, it's kind of crazy how she's able to make just about as competent a rage song as about half the field out there, currently, when it comes to relevant artists on the scene. In concept, that just shouldn't be the case, and yet it is.

We also have the title track, which is very overtly a metal track. The drums and guitars on this one are especially loud and heavy, but this does leave the vocals sounding even more lost in the mix. And I will say, how these instruments come together, it does feel a little rigid, because clearly it's all being assembled in the DAW, not coming through a live band or anything like that. But maybe this is a track or a sound that could come across across a lot better were North to actually work with a band or some live musicians in the future.

The song "Th!s t!m3" also has an insane vocal sample from Social Repose, a track they did from a few years ago that has obviously a really intense emo and screamo flavor to it, but somehow works really well against these buzzing synthesizer layers that are stacked super high. Then of course, this is met with these crazy Jersey club kicks and an epic synth build. It really culminates into a fuzzy wall of sound. And again, my wishes continue to be more length, more development, more vocal buckles in the mix.

The song "W0ah," while not the most distinct instrumentally on this record, it does have some lyrical highlights that I think are pretty funny. "Miku hair, you could call me Vocaloid / Taking pics, chain flash like a Polaroid." How many rappers out here are shouting out Hatsune Miku?

Meanwhile, the closing track, while instrumentally it is kind of one note, is maybe the darkest and emotionally intense song on the record, with North making reference to feeling betrayed by everybody. And you know, it could be a bit of borrowed emo melodrama here some mall goth vibes, North just being kind of over the top emotionally. But it still does lead to one of the sadder vocal performances on the EP.

So, look, while by no means is this EP even close to perfect, and there are aspects of it that certainly feel unfinished or pretty underdeveloped, for an artist of North's age at this very sort of, you know, early moment in her career, she's definitely further ahead than you would think.

So while I wouldn't say this project was blowing me away or anything like that, it's definitely surprisingly palatable. Visceral in its best moments, too, while also leaving a lot of room for potential and growth. Which is why I'm feeling a strong 5 to a light 6 on it, and I'm going to leave it there.

Anthony Fantano, North West. Forever.