If it wasn’t already clear that North West, the scion of the West-Kardashian throne, had inherited serious star power, it only takes roughly 10 minutes for her to prove it on her debut EP. Over an efficient five tracks, West traverses the sonic styles of her generation — from nu-metal riffs to rage-rap 808s — with startling confidence. At just 12 years old, North’s debut is impressive regardless of her famous pedigree. Even for music royalty, talent still has to announce itself, and that’s what she’s done with N0rth4evr.
The EP opens with “H0w Sh0uld ! f33l,” spelled with the same chaotic eccentricity of the song titles on Playboi Carti’s Whole Lotta Red, and clocking in at just under two minutes. The song starts in emo territory, with a crooning vocal that could come from an Evanescence B-side, before launching into fast-paced drums that fit squarely in the Slayyyter universe of hyperactive pop influenced by the internet’s sprawling musical instincts. “They don’t see me, they just see the appeal,” she raps, somewhat devastatingly, as the song’s booming 808s, reminiscent of Ken Carson, glide into a Jersey Club-style rhythm.
On “#N0rth4evr,” the project’s emotional core is laid bare. It’d be easy to write North off as a novelty until you hear the angst oozing through the Slipknot-esque drums executed with startling conviction. Here is the daughter of one of the most scrutinized couples in pop-culture history, and she exhibits a self-awareness well beyond her years. North’s first single, “Piercing on My Hand,” channeled the public scrutiny over her style choices into a certifiable banger; similarly, the songs on her new EP navigate the realities of being born into fame with a sense of melodic urgency.
“How I’m younger than you, but I’m who you look up to,” she raps with a confident swagger that she’s frankly earned on “D!e.” In the spirit of both of her parents, North has already taken fame into her own hands, dictating on her own terms how she’ll engage with an increasingly adoring public. Her verse on FKA Twigs’ track “Childlike Things,” from last year’s Eusexua, exhibited West’s confidence in her creative vision; she even raps her lyrics there in Japanese, carrying a motif present throughout her work.
“Th!s t!m3” brings the EP’s emo sensibility into focus, fusing her varied sonic inspirations into something cohesive. As a producer and curator of sound, North seems less interested in recreating the past than in metabolizing the chaos of the present: ear-shattering guitars, post-punk beats colored with the gloss of hyperpop’s long tail, all with the diaristic melodrama of a generation raised online. Closing track “Aishite” feels like teen angst distilled into its most potent form. “Can’t be no one’s friend, I can’t let nobody in,” West raps, managing to tap into a universal adolescent experience while speaking to the contours of her extremely unique position.
That tension is what makes N0rth4evr so compelling. Rather than pretend to be anonymous or mysterious, she leans into the fact that her life has been public since before she had any say in the matter. But across these five songs, she begins to turn that impossible inheritance into material, shaping the noise around her into something undeniably her own. N0rth4evr is brief, but it leaves a surprisingly lasting impression: the sound of a young artist not merely entering the family business, but beginning to define the terms of her own mythology.
Jim Adkins performs with Jimmy Eat World at Warped Tour in D.C.Mike Kimchi for Rolling Stone
