Released July 26, 2019
7 / 10
Favorites
Have Mercy, RNP (feat. Anderson .Paak), We Gon Make It (feat. Meek Mill), Lost & Found
Least favorite
Nightmares Are Real (feat. Pusha T), Family Matters (feat. Arin Ray)
North Carolina native Cordae (previously known as YBN Cordae up until a couple of weeks ago when the YBN collective broke up) delivers a debut full of promise and the industry has been paying attention: "The Lost Boy" garnered nominations for Best Rap Song and Best Rap Album at the 62nd Grammys and Cordae managed to secure an impressive set of A-list industry forces to jump on the project - including more low-key contributions from Quincy Jones, Masego, SiR and Syd. The 21 year-old's first LP displays a great dose of maturity; Cordae doesn't shy away from vulnerability and personal narratives while acknowledging the need for communities to come together and having a strong support system to lift you up. With great humility, he shows he is coming into his own as a powerful lyricist and splits his time between gratefulness and (premature?) victory laps. There is a great deal of reverence for those that paved the way before him, felt both in stylistic choices and explicitly formulation in lyrics. Perhaps one of the best decisions he made in artistic direction was to bring back a tone of raw honesty mainstream hip-hop has recently mostly shelved in favor of boasting and party anthems. His voice becomes a trusted one, singing and rapping about self-care and mental health in a time where the black voice is meeting the moment to break free from centuries of institutionalized attempts to harness it. There's nostalgia and hope in the story of "The Lost Boy" but it's missing the pinch of curiosity and risk needed to get from good to great. "The Lost Boy" is the tale of Cordae finding his calling in music, from the days working in a chain restaurant in Baltimore while studying to living off his music today. Wintertime sets the scene by jumping head first in the lowest of lows and the applied external pressures that make atoning for poor decisions an incredibly difficult task. Cordae admits he "was addicted to the Xans to calm anxiety down / And I never would admit because society clowns", the first of many confessions on the path to healing and beginning his journey from lost to found. The horns take us into Have Mercy where Cordae comes to life, showing off dexterity and audacity in his lyrical play and flow. He manages to make the repetitive flute sample and slapping beat exciting. Armed with determination, he sets out on the path to finding himself. The first skit of the record, Sweet Lawd echoes its precursor by putting a gospel spin on its opening lines, to some keys and light backing vocals. The next track has Chance written all over, bass-led through valleys of lessons learned in rapped verses and gospel harmonies. Bad Idea synthesizes a variety of musical influences and feels pretty self-contained and well-delimited in a style principally occupied by Chance. At this point of the journey, Cordae looks back to the routes already taken and quickly discards the idea of going back where he came from for immediate comfort, keeping his focus on the long game. The message doesn't feel aligned with the music - which in itself sounds dulls by comparison with what we've heard before. In Thanksgiving the attitude towards going home seems to have drastically changed: context is everything here. Cordae imagines going back home only for a short visit further down the road, yearning for lazying on the couch with family. The combination of the beat and background vocals is explosive - quite the production here. It's a smooth track that nonetheless quickly plateaus.
RNP then marks a milestone on the journey: it's the first track turned forward rather than back along the way. It's a welcome pause in the conscious rap introspective road that introduces a bit of funk and play. The musical chemistry between Cordae and Anderson is unreal, the latter further establishing his standing at the helm of the intersecting worlds of hip-hop and R&B. The sonics are clearly a sonic homage to Slim Shady, with solid production from none other than J. Cole. Cordae projects himself further along the journey, foreshadowing blessings to come. Broke As Fuck sees the energy displayed by RNP and raises it a notch or two. The song acts as a reminder of harsh realities and pain that led Cordae to where he is, in particular addressing the effect of his grandmother's passing and the murder of his cousin had on him. His delivery feels almost like a freestyle, giving us yet another angle of Cordae's potential. Trauma is not the only danger lurking in the bushes along the path to finding yourself. Thousand Words addresses the nefarious effect of reality distortions on social media, particularly the burden on how masculinity and virility is perceived. Cordae's voice blends in beautifully with the female backing vocals on the chorus, bopping to a mellow sound. Musically: no fuss, no muss. Cordae finds solace in music as a creative outlet, far from home, with its fair share of uncertainty. The only sure thing in his eyes is the belief that he'll get where he wants if he sticks to his guts and stays true to himself. This seems to be the core message of Way Back Home. Cordae taps in a rich lower register in the chorus and Ty's verse ties in nicely with the rest of the track. At this point, one might note that Cordae remarkably holds his own in the presence of music veterans.
Doubts creep up again a little further along the lost boy's quest. Nightmares Are Real is a ghastly track that gets lost in over-dramatization, an anthem-like chorus and hair-rising sounds of crying children in the back. Pusha T saves the tune from total failure but it remains one of the weakest musical moments of the record. Unfortunately, following song Family Matters doesn't raise the bar by much. Although the candid lyrical content pulls you in, the disconnect between verses and the chorus is hard to get over. The eye-roll inducing clapping that starts during the chorus and continues into the chorus doesn't help either. Percussions are nice though (?). On We Gon Make It, Meek Mill shines so bright he re-invigorates Cordae to partake in one of the greatest comeback story heard recently. Both artists are astonished and grateful that despite all the obstacles along the way - the personal, the societal, the institutional and the entwinement of the three -, they've made it to where they are and sound even more hopeful for what's to come. Cordae is not getting off the pedestal he graveled on anytime soon. Lost & Found is a self-congratulatory piece that celebrates the journey for its lessons learned and where it led him as well as the rest of the way to even greener pastures. Lyrical content is filled with puns, pop culture references and shoutouts to legends. It's one long verse, and in the end the simplest of lines is the one that sticks most: "Yeah, I was a lost boy, now I'm found". If you've made it to the Grammys voting radar, I'd say you're pretty much pinned down to the nearest zipcode. Currently waiting for the sequel to this exciting debut - "The Found Boy"? -,an album that reverse-engineers the journey to finding oneself; isn't that a grand idea?
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