From A Bird’s Eye View

1.18.22

Cordae From A Bird’s Eye View 1.14.21

Artist Cordae released his sophomore album From A Bird’s Eye View this past Friday, and his press run prior to the album release was almost as phenomenal as the album. The multitude of interviews, freestyles, and guest appearances have seemed to slow down since the pandemic for many artists, but Cordae rose to the occasion when releasing his sophomore album, and educated viewers quite well as to just whom he is as an artist, and human.

The LA Leakers have been the spot for where artists go to get viewers excited about new music they’ll be dropping. However, the artists are usually given classic beats, older beats, something that every artist that comes through the studio probably free-styled over before. Cordae stepped into the booth and sailed over Kodak Black’s Super Gremlin beat, which released two months ago, and just started gaining traction as of the past few weeks. The style between the two artists is completely different, so Cordae showcasing his skills here was impressive, as he’s received over 3/4 of a million views in under a week, and some feedback from commenters suggesting that he could single handedly save rap music.

On top of his freestyle performance, Cordae performed on Jimmy Fallon, after his second interview on the show. This was followed up by a Breakfast Club Interview, and a Tiny Desk Concert. Each performance and interview was as insightful to whom Cordae is as an artist, just as much as the album was. We learned he still does chores at home, his mother still grinds at her job because she wants to, he cares deeply about putting all his friends on, and wants to preach about ownership to his fans and followers.

Cordae described the meaning of his album, From A Bird’s Eye View, to be seeing different aspects and scenarios of life, from a perspective outside of your own. He described getting into an argument with someone, then taking a step back and understanding their point of view. Or, going through some things in life, but seeing them from someone else’s perspective. Throughout the album, he paints the pictures of his life, through his own lens, and through that of others.

The album opens up with a track titled Shiloh’s Intro, which is a freestyle from Cordae’s brother who is currently sitting behind bars. He rhymes for about a minute, and closed out the track with the absolutely perfect intro to his brother’s album:

But I could tell you what I seen or what I lived, it's up to you
Or let my brother tell the story from a bird's-eye view

Cordae talks about his brother throughout the project, and also includes an interlude of getting his brother on the phone. During his Breakfast Club Interview, he got to go into a bit of detail on his current action plans to help bring his brother home.

Track number three, Super, includes a few bars that likely answered the questions to a lot of fans whom were wondering what happened to the YBN trio, of Cordae, Nahmir and Almighty Jay. If you follow Cordae deeply, you know that he dropped the YBN a while back, but educated everyone that him and Nahmir discussed the decision, and it was never any bad blood. In this song, he dives a deep further, explaining that since there was no ownership in YBN, it was time for him to get rid of the acronym. Cordae now has his own label, Hi Level, and wants to practice what he preaches in terms of ownership.

I be feeling like it's me against the world
But I can give a f*** who my opponent is
N*** askin' why I dropped the YBN
I had no other choice 'cause we ain't own this s***
You know that janky s***, I'm not condoning it

The fourteen song track list consists of a few heavy hitter features, from Gunna, to Lil Wayne, to H.E.R, to Lil Durk, to Eminem, to Roddy Ricch, to Ant Clemons, to Stevie Wonder. Each artist feature came with a great story to tell. We learned Cordae first met Lil Wayne on Wayne’s podcast, where he told Cordae he’d be happy to do a song together. Ten months later, Cordae recorded Sinister, did not think it was going to make the album, then had a moment where he thought Wayne would sound good on the track, and had his Lil Wayne verse twenty-four hours later. His Stevie Wonder collaboration was even better. Allegedly, Stevie called Cordae at midnight, on FaceTime, while Cordae was in bed sleeping. He did not want to make it seem like he was slacking, so he lied to Stevie Wonder, on FaceTime, and told him that he was in the studio. Stevie told him to pull up on him, and that is just what Cordae did, even though he was actually in bed. The rest is history.

My favorite song on the album is Chronicles. Five stars for vocals, bars, storytelling, relatability, and the features. Cordae has listed H.E.R as one of his most listed artists in numerous interviews over the years, and we got to see the romantic thug side of Durk come out, which has been quite some time. Cordae pops in and out of his singing and rapping throughout the album. He provides a bit of both here, but the vocals come through strong, and I knew this song would be really nice performed live. Rightfully so, it was one of the two tracks performed on Jimmy Fallon, the song to close out his Tiny Desk Concert, and the track he asked The Breakfast Club to close out his interview to.

Cordae’s album is out now, and his United States tour starts in February.