Rexdale is a neighborhood in Toronto, situated in the Etobicoke district, where NAV, the son of Punjabi parents, was born and raised. On the rap star’s fifth album, OMW2 REXDALE, the prodigal child returns to the place that gave him his grit, determination, and hustle. It marks his first project since Demons Protected by Angels in 2022 and finds NAV tapped into the subjects and production styles he introduced on his early projects. In that sense, these heartbroken and love-hungry songs are a return to NAV’s origins too. On opener “SINKING,” he finds himself trapped and alone, rapping, “No one hears my cries for help/My heart is slowly sinking, I’m all alone in this world.” Elsewhere, though, things get better as NAV outlines his rise from scrappy Toronto upstart to one of the biggest rappers in North America. On “BURBS,” he puts it simply enough, rapping, “Walk in the store, I spend a lot, what I’m makin’ is absurd.” The cash is all the sweeter because success was so hard-earned. He adds, “Used to spend all day in the projects, now I’m tucked up in the burbs.”