After previously announcing his “retirement” from the rap game, Toronto artist Nav is back with his brand new album Bad Habits. The project comes on the heels of Nav’s 2018 release Reckless, which was received with mixed reviews from many critics and hip hop fans.

Album release

The rollout for this album has been quite different than his past projects, especially because of the rumblings of his “retirement” and the ongoing drama between Nav’s close friend Lil Uzi Vert and his label Atlantic Records. For those unaware, Lil Uzi Vert has been trying to release his long-anticipated new album Eternal Atake for almost a year now. Uzi has spoken of the behind-the-scenes trouble that he deals with in regards to his label, but now it seems to have gotten worse than it has been thus far.

The most confusing part about Lil Uzi Vert’s situation with his label is that they’ve actually begun to block him from appearing on other artist’s albums. This is exactly what has happened with the release of Nav’s new project. A collaboration between the two rappers called “Habits” was supposed to appear on the album, but didn’t because Uzi’s label bosses DJ Drama and Don Cannon wouldn’t clear Uzi’s verse.

Petty Instagram taunting

During the lead up to the album’s release, DJ Drama and Don Cannon even went as far to seemingly taunt both Nav and Lil Uzi Vert on Nav’s Instagram post detailing the situation.

In his response to the announcement of Nav’s album and Uzi’s feature not being included, DJ Drama seems to be ignoring the fact that he is one of the reasons that the track is being left off the project. You can see DJ Drama’s comment on the post below.

What’s the hold up?

Many fans have been very confused as to why Drama and Cannon won’t let their most popular and successful artist be featured on another artist’s song, especially because the feature could boost anticipation for Uzi’s new album to new heights. One theory that was created by fans is that Drama and Cannon are trying to spite Uzi after he dissed them on Twitter multiple times.

Past Nav and Lil Uzi Vert collaborations

Another reason that this situation is so discouraging is because whenever Nav and Uzi are on the same track, it is always a hit. Here are some of the past collabs from the two artists.

“Wanted You” – Nav ft. Lil Uzi Vert

“ASAP Ferg” – Nav & Metro Boomin’ ft. Lil Uzi Vert

“NAVUZIMETRO#PT2 – Nav & Metro Boomin’ ft. Lil Uzi Vert

What’s next?

Whatever the hold up is, I think hope that Drama and Cannon can stop being petty towards Uzi and allow him to feature on other artist’s tracks and drop his highly anticipated new album.