Yes, we’re here because of her parents. But what really makes that “good” or “bad?” What people really can’t stand is a nepo baby who sucks, a person who gets handed opportunities and fails to deliver. On N0rth4evr, West leans on every resource available, from expensive samples (like Social Repose, “Caramelldansen,” and Meg & Dia) to a team of engineers and studio guitarists, in an effort to deliver 12 minutes of fine-tuned pandemonium. You could cynically interpret those assets as an ostentatious display of privilege, but it scans more like North West trying to use every tool at her disposal in service of worldbuilding.
And these samples help to punch up the weight of her pre-teen emotions, which might be the biggest advantage a younger artist can have over their more jaded industry-mates. Just think back to how big and dramatic everything felt in middle school, and how the music that meant the most to you at that time in your life probably still stirs up latent emotions. It’s genuinely cool to see any artist document that in their work – it’s what I love about the sampling ethos of Girl Talk, or skaiwater’s pink print series – and North West refuses to skate by on cheatcode samples, mutating her source material into something darker and more feral. Adolescence sucks for everybody, but N0rth4evr finds wild beauty in the chaos of growing up.
