Demons Protected by Angels

Demons Protected by Angels is the fourth studio album by Canadian rapper Nav. It was released through XO and Republic Records on September 9, 2022. The album contains guest appearances from Lil Uzi Vert, Lil Baby, Travis Scott, Don Toliver, Future, Gunna, Lil Durk, RealestK, Bryson Tiller, and Babyface Ray. The bonus version was released on September 14, 2022. It includes an additional guest appearance from Internet Money for the previously-released 2020 single, "Lemonade", their collaboration alongside Gunna and Don Toliver, which features Nav. Production on the single was handled by Nav himself, Tay Keith, Boi-1da, Money Musik, Pro Logic, Grayson, Mike Dean, and Wheezy, among others.

Demons Protected by Angels
Studio album by Nav
Released	September 9, 2022
Length	55:18
Label	XO Republic
Producer	Nav Aaron Paris Alawais BenjiCold Bodi Boi-1da Carlton McDowell Cash Chanelbigs Darko Dez Wright Fabio Aguilar Frost Ghostrage Grayson Honeywoods Jacobsen Keanu Beats London Cyr Mike Dean Millaire Money Musik Oscar Zulu Piscot Prodbyace Pro Logic Reece Rex Kudo Smplgtwy Tay Keith Wheezy Yeeshy Zubnid
Nav chronology
Emergency Tsunami (2020) Demons Protected by Angels (2022)
Singles from Demons Protected by Angels
"Never Sleep" Released: July 29, 2022 "Wrong Decisions" Released: August 23, 2022 "One Time" Released: September 13, 2022

Background and promotion

On June 27, 2022, Nav took to Twitter to announce the title of the album and shared a screenshot of the tweet on social media.^[1] On July 29, 2022, he released the lead single, "Never Sleep", a collaboration with American rapper Lil Baby, which features fellow American rapper and singer Travis Scott.^[2] The same day the song was released, he was interviewed by Complex, in which he spoke about the album and how it was named:

The album title was inspired by a sweater that my friend had made. And I've begged him to get the sweater. I was like, "Yo, I wanna wear your shit and support my friend's stuff." So he brought it out and it had that on the back of the sweater. And it was very meaningful to me, because he came up with that himself when his mom passed away about a year ago. So I was like, "Wow, that's even better." Like, it actually has a good meeting [sic]. So that's why we came up with it. [...] Someone close to me had pointed my eyes toward the sweater. They're like, "Oh, that's fire, can you make an album called that?" But the whole quote on this sweater was "fighting demons protected by angels." We thought it was too long. Then one of my producers had mentioned, "Maybe we should take the 'fighting' out." We thought about it, and called our friends to ask them their opinion. We all said it's kind of dope. Then one day we were playing dominoes in the studio, and I just randomly asked him, 'How'd you come up with that?' He found that on Google, and then he told me where it's from. It was even more meaningful.^[3]

On August 23, 2022, Nav released the second single of the album, "Wrong Decisions".^[4] Exactly one week later, he revealed the release date, along with a trailer video that revealed the featured artists, which did not include American rapper Gunna at the time.^[5] On September 5, 2022, Nav shared the cover art for the album.^[6] He revealed the tracklist in collaboration with Spotify hip hop playlist RapCaviar the following day.^[7] On September 8, 2022, the day before the album was released, Nav was interviewed by Canadian-American YouTube channel Nelk's Full Send Podcast, in which he revealed that he recorded a song with fellow Canadian rapper and singer Drake, but he decided to not include it on the album because he felt that they "could've done a better song and the timeframe was just not good" and along with the latter is "such a big artist" that he did not want the song to "take away from anything else on the album".^[8] On September 13, 2022, "One Time", a collaboration with American rapper and singer Don Toliver, which features fellow American rapper Future, was released as the third and final single of the album.^[9]

Critical reception

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	^[10]
Pitchfork	6.2/10^[11]
Slant Magazine	^[12]

Writing for Pitchfork, Matthew Ritchie felt that Nav "attempts to shift focus away from the beats and features, finally treating the songs like they're his own" and "Nav lets extended moments of true self-awareness break through his manicured shell, momentarily deviating from the soulless bars that often fill his albums", but conversely added that "ceding too much room to guests undermines Nav's individuality and causes the star-powered tracks to veer toward the generic".^[11]

Commercial performance

Demons Protected by Angels debuted at number two on the US Billboard 200 chart, earning 67,000 album-equivalent units, of which 26,000 were in pure album sales in its first week.^[13] It serves as Nav's fifth consecutive top-ten album in the country.^[14] The album also accumulated a total of 60.13 million on-demand streams of the album's songs during the tracking week.^[15]

Track listing

Demons Protected by Angels track listing

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Producer(s)	Length
1.	"Count on Me (Intro)"	Navraj Goraya Masamune Kudo Aaron Cheung Carlton McDowell, Jr. Reece Weinberg Michael Dean	Nav Rex Kudo Aaron Paris McDowell Reece Mike Dean^[a]	2:06
2.	"Baby"	Goraya Matthew Samuels Mokhom Bhangal Julius Herold Emile Hilaire	Nav Boi-1da Money Musik Millaire Darko Smplgtwy Zubnid	2:42
3.	"Dead Shot" (with Lil Uzi Vert)	Goraya Symere Woods Amir Esmailian Andrew Franklin	Pro Logic	3:01
4.	"Never Sleep" (with Lil Baby featuring Travis Scott)	Goraya Dominique Jones Jacques Webster II Brytavious Chambers Grayson Serio Dean	Tay Keith Grayson Dean^[a]	3:05
5.	"Last of the Mohicans"	Goraya Bhangal Joe Talamo	Nav Money Musik Oscar Zulu	2:50
6.	"One Time" (with Don Toliver featuring Future)	Goraya Caleb Toliver Nayvadius Wilburn Esmailian Wesley Glass Dylan Cleary-Krell	Wheezy Dez Wright^[a]	3:09
7.	"Demons in My Cup"	Goraya James Addison	BenjiCold	2:42
8.	"Playa" (with Gunna)	Goraya Sergio Kitchens Franklin Andrea de Bernardi	Pro Logic Alawais Prodbyace^[a]	2:19
9.	"Weirdo"	Goraya Esmailian Glass Chandler Ingram	Wheezy Ghostrage^[a]	2:00
10.	"My Dawg" (with Lil Durk)	Goraya Durk Banks Esmailian Franklin Keanu Torres Fabio Aguilar	Nav Pro Logic Keanu Beats Aguilar	3:17
11.	"Don't Compare"	Goraya McDowell	Nav McDowell	2:41
12.	"Interstellar" (with Lil Uzi Vert)	Goraya Woods Esmailian Franklin Patrick Piscot Jeppe Jacobsen	Nav Pro Logic Piscot Jacobsen^[a]	2:44
13.	"Loaded"	Goraya Franklin Bhangal James Cyr Yan Cortequisse	Nav Money Musik London Cyr Yeeshy	2:48
14.	"Lost Me" (with RealestK)	Goraya Rony Kordab Esmailian Luke Honeywood Patrick Bodi	Nav Money Musik Honeywoods Bodi	3:06
15.	"Reset" (with Bryson Tiller)	Goraya Bryson Tiller Esmailian Franklin	Nav Cash Pro Logic	3:00
16.	"Mismatch" (with Babyface Ray)	Goraya Marcellus Register Esmailian Glass Bhangal	Wheezy Money Musik	2:07
17.	"Wrong Decisions"	Goraya Kudo Cheung McDowell	Nav	2:59
18.	"Destiny"	Goraya Sugar-Ray Henry Andreas Bigum	Frost Chanelbigs	1:52
19.	"Ball in Peace (Outro)"	Goraya Dean	Nav Dean^[a]	3:37
Total length:				52:03

Bonus track

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Producer(s)	Length
20.	"Lemonade" (performed by Internet Money, Gunna, and Don Toliver featuring Nav)	Danny Snodgrass, Jr. Nicholas Mira Alec Wigdahl Henry Nichols Elias Latrou Kitchens Toliver Goraya Jonathan Mitchell Jocelyn Donald Donny Flores	Taz Taylor Nick Mira Wigdahl E-Trou Pharaoh Vice	3:15
Total length:				55:18

Notes

• ^{^[a]} signifies a co-producer

Charts

Weekly charts Weekly chart performance for Demons Protected by Angels Chart (2022) Peak position Canadian Albums (Billboard)^[16] 2 French Albums (SNEP)^[17] 167 Swiss Albums (Schweizer Hitparade)^[18] 92 UK Albums (OCC)^[19] 55 US Billboard 200^[20] 2 US Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums (Billboard)^[21] 1

Year-end charts Year-end chart performance for Demons Protected by Angels Chart (2022) Position US Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums (Billboard)^[22] 93

References

1. @beatsbynav (June 27, 2022). "My new album will be called "Demons protected by Angels"" (Tweet). Retrieved September 9, 2022 – via Twitter.
2. Espinoza, Joshua (July 29, 2022). "Nav Reconnects With Travis Scott and Lil Baby on "Never Sleep"". Complex. Retrieved September 9, 2022.
3. Blanchet, Brenton (July 29, 2022). "Nav, Before the Storm". Complex. Retrieved September 9, 2022.
4. Shifferaw, Abel (August 23, 2022). "Nav Shares Video for New Track "Wrong Decisions"". Complex. Retrieved September 9, 2022.
5. Aron A. (August 30, 2022). "Nav Shares "Demons Protected By Angels" Release Date & Features". HotNewHipHop. Retrieved September 9, 2022.
6. Blake, Cole (September 5, 2022). "Nav Unveils Artwork For "Demons Protected By Angels"". HotNewHipHop. Retrieved September 9, 2022.
7. Kearns, Sarah (September 6, 2022). "NAV Reveals Full 'Demons Protected by Angels' Tracklist". Hypebeast. Retrieved September 9, 2022.
8. Saponara, Michael (September 9, 2022). "Nav Explains Why He Left Drake Off 'Demons Protected By Angels'". HipHopDX. Retrieved September 9, 2022.
9. Li, Joyce (September 14, 2022). "NAV Teams up With Future and Don Toliver in New Visuals for "One Time"". Hypebeast. Retrieved September 14, 2022. Following the release of his most recent album Demons Protected By Angels, NAV has dropped new visuals for his single "One Time" featuring Future and Don Toliver.
10. Staff, TiVo. "Demons Protected by Angels - NAV". AllMusic.
11. Ritchie, Matthew (September 15, 2022). "Nav: Demons Protected by Angels Album Review". Pitchfork. Retrieved September 15, 2022.
12. Attard, Paul (13 September 2022). "Nav Demons Protected by Angels Review: Combative but Passionless". Slant Magazine. Retrieved September 13, 2022.
13. "Bad Bunny's 'Un Verano Sin Ti' Has Most Weeks at No. 1 on Billboard 200 Since 2016". Billboard. Retrieved September 24, 2022.
14. "Nav's Demons Protected By Angels Debuts at No. 2 on Billboard Top 200". Complex. Retrieved September 24, 2022.
15. "Bad Bunny's 'Un Verano Sin Ti' Has Most Weeks at No. 1 on Billboard 200 Since 2016". Billboard. Retrieved September 24, 2022.
16. "Nav Chart History (Canadian Albums)". Billboard. Retrieved September 20, 2022.
17. "Lescharts.com – Nav – Demons Protected by Angels". Hung Medien. Retrieved September 20, 2022.
18. "Swisscharts.com – Nav – Demons Protected by Angels". Hung Medien. Retrieved September 18, 2022.
19. "Official Albums Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved September 16, 2022.
20. "Nav Chart History (Billboard 200)". Billboard. Retrieved September 18, 2022.
21. "Nav Chart History (Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums)". Billboard. Retrieved September 20, 2022.
22. "Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums – Year-End 2022". Billboard. Retrieved December 10, 2022.