How PARTYNEXTDOOR Subtly Impacted The Soundtrack Of Our Life

I’m not sure why, but I’ve always felt that PARTYNEXDOOR was underrated and kind of an underdog, maybe it was because it was easy to compare his impact to Drake’s. However, he seemed to agree in a rant online a couple years back. I remember hearing that he felt like he didn’t get enough credit for being behind the scenes.

It was only as I was listening to his newest album PARTYMOBILE that I really thought about how little recognition he gets. Party has TAKEN over our summers for years, practically since he first came out. I personally forgot how much his music was played, not just by me, but in general. Once I really started thinking about it, I realized PND was playing anytime we left the house. Party dominated our summers with anthems like “Wild Thoughts” and “Work”, but even tracks like “Come and See Me”, were huge. That same album also had “Not Nice”, which I was a bop. Before all that, he had “Recognize” with Drake. This is all without even mentioning features. “Preach” off of IYRTITL, “Run Up” with Major Lazer, “Still Got Time” with Zayn. Party has even been involved in some of Ye’s best songs as of late too, “Ghost Town”, with 070 Shake, and probably some more shit I can’t think of. Party was really on ALL the time. Maybe you guys did, but I didn’t realize till now how much he did. I easily listed some of the most popular songs in the world, all of which Party contributed to.

A lot of the world learned about Party after his early affiliation with the OVO camp. Party would release incredible music following his OVO-signing, practically molding the sound that would eventually influence the sound of guys like Bryson Tiller, 6lack, and others. Party eventually worked his way into a household name. Releasing hit after hit as an artist, as well as a writer.

That being said, I personally lost connection to his music once he began experimenting more. To this day, PND1 is one of my favourite albums, “Right Now” being one of favourite songs. I have to emphasize though that I speak for myself in that regard, because I even though I stopped listening, I could feel the rest of the world falling in love with PND. But then he vanished. Even though his last project had multiple charting singles, like “Come and See Me” and “Not Nice”, we hadn’t heard much from Party aside from a few features since then. PND intentionally fell back from the limelight, but now he’s back and better than ever.

Late in 2019, Party broke his silence to release “The News” and “Loyal”, the latter of which included a featured Drake. “Loyal” took off quickly and I think that is when we all began to realize again how important Party is. He came with the vibes as early as the first single, then followed it up with what might be his best project ever. The album starts with classic PND vibes, dark and moody, but then it picks up exactly when it needs to. “Loyal” comes in at the perfect time and sets the tone for what would be the sound for most of the album. The album ends strong with one of his most articulate and well-written tracks, a grimey outro track titled “Savage Anthem”.

My personal favourites right now are “Trauma” and “Believe It”. The latter of which has the first Rihanna feature in 2 years.

For a more detailed description of the album check out the post I did for Sidedoor Magazine.

Let us know what you think of the album! What are your favourite songs?

Hopefully we can get through this quarantine safely because even if it’s ignorant, I want to be outside, I want to feel how this energy influences the city and the people I love.

-Bhaven