PG Nava was born in 1997, and spent his childhood years in inner-city Chicago. His early experiences were shaped by living with a single mother in an ultra-urban setting, where he witnessed episodes of gang-related violence, which eventually persuaded his mother and himself to move. Drawn to many different styles of music and particularly influenced by Bone Thugs N Harmony, Tupac Shakur, Biggie Smalls, Arrested Development and Lil Wayne, PG Nava was prompted by his father to write and trade rap verses. At 15 his mom remarried and moved into his new stepdad’s home, a situation which destabilized Nava and led him to focus and change his life direction.
He found solace in Hip-hop and basketball, opting for the first choice and working towards a solo career. He started learning piano, Pro Tools, and creating his own beats. This finally led to the release of his debut mixtape, “Different Type of Swag”, dropped at the beginning of 2017. Now PG Nava has released the single “Mula”.
For reasons that span miles in every direction, there’s almost nothing about PG Nava’s craft that is light, airy or even remotely relatable to a mass audience. There’s depth to nearly everything that comes out of his mouth. But this lesson—notwithstanding how true it may be—didn’t truly sink in for me until I listened this gripping single and some other tracks from his mixtape.
“Mula” starts like many other songs do: Percussion thumps and a keyboard motif begins its rotation as PG Nava commences a deep-voiced spoken croon, leaning into his initial thoughts. Then, with absolutely zero warning, loud and immediate verbal fire interrupts into the chorus: “We want that mula!”
And I’m not using the words “loud and immediate,” all willy-nilly. This made me jump out of my seat when I first heard it, as I had the stereo turned up to 11, and was not expecting an abrupt change of tone! This wasn’t unintentional. Nava probably knows a thing or two about presentation and drawing attention.
He understands the common denominator between entertaining an audience and penetrating their awareness to get his message across. PG Nava does this because he’s one of the smarter young rappers coming up in the game right now, and “Mula” comes up aces, as just one more reason to believe it.
At the same time he lacks the pretense of many of his peers; he’s concise, pays attention to the music rather than just servicing a theme or narrative, which means he keeps his package consistently compelling from a purely musical sense. Furthermore he doesn’t seem to be infatuated by his own reflection. That means his music precedes his personal intent. And frankly that is what this industry is supposed to be all about!
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