The Allegory: Keep Cordae Young

12.2.20

Royce Da 5’9”, Cordae

Royce Da 5’9 has had himself quite the year. He dropped an album The Allegory in February, he launched a new podcast with Lupe Fiasco, he has squashed numerous rap beefs of his peers, spread wisdom across the country on multiple counts, and was rewarded with a Grammy Nomination for ‘Best Rap Album.’ A nomination well deserved, as this album is one of my favorites of 2020. In a recent interview, Royce talks about his Grammy nomination, as well as many interesting stories that went into the making of the album.

The interview took place on Instagram Live with Threeletterman3. Instantly, they got into talking about Royce’s Best Rap Album nomination for The Allegory. When Threeletterman3 asked why Book of Ryan was not nominated back in 2018, Royce explained that team has never submitted any of his albums up until this point. Though he was never too worried about it, he says he could be mad, that perhaps he did miss out on multiple nominations prior.

When discussing the various nominations in the category, Royce Da 5’9 says he loves for each and every album in the nomination bucket, and that whoever wins, would be a win for the culture. It is true, in my opinion. Last year, Tyler, The Creator won Best Rap Album. While we love Tyler and the Igor project, many people, including Tyler, were confused why it was put into this category. This year, these albums feel like rap albums.

Many people think the winner would be between Freddie Gibbs and Royce Da 5’9. However, it could be Nas’ turn to finally take home a Grammy win, after 14 nominees with no wins. I personally would not be surprised if they did give the award to D. Smoke, since he is the one different one of the group. He feels more for everybody than pure hip-hop. The talent is impeccable, but just thinking about how things have gone in the past, I would not be surprised if the Grammy’s goes with the newest artist of the bunch. The final nominee is Jay Electronica, who should not be forgotten, by any means, as well. This is a great category this year. While I personally hope for a Royce win, they are all great nominees.

Getting into the album itself, Threeletterman3 brought up the Vince Staples on The Allegory. Royce mentioned how great Vince was, and that he actually got the verse on the last day possible, because someone else was in that spot. That person, was Cordae. Originally, Cordae was supposed to be on Young World. Cordae had even recorded the verse and sent it to Royce, however, Atlantic Records would not clear the verse. Allegedly, they wanted to “keep Cordae young” by keeping him off of Royce’s album. Royce expressed he felt that it was a bad move by the label. Not only was it clear Cordae wanted to be on the album, since he had recorded it, but now the album is up for a Grammy. He says he does not care at all about Atlantic, but cares about Cordae and what is best for him. Not that winning a Grammy is what is important here, but why hold him back from something that could have been incredible.

It is interesting to me that the label is concerned with keeping Cordae young, and that they would hold him from Royce, specifically. Firstly, Cordae just dropped the YBN in his name, along with being a part of the YBN crew. His style of music is so different than YBN, and it was apparent that he was ready to out-grow that phase of his life. Next, Cordae was in the studio with Dr. Dre before he even was nominated for any awards or even had his own album out. Dre is beyond Royce in terms of age, but the style seemed to fit so well. One could only assume that after working with Dre, this opened up many doors to Royce and team. Eminem had even co-signed Cordae and his work ethic on an interview with Crooked I, earlier this year. Cordae’s style is not young in any way. He brings back a classic hip-hop sound, and pays attention to bars and beats over autotune and adlibs. I do not think there would have been anything wrong with having Cordae on The Allegory. Quite frankly, I think it would have been legendary.

I actually remember saying that when Music to be Murdered By released, Cordae was the one missing feature, since Eminem had included many young artists on his album. I think he would have fit in even better on The Allegory. Imagine a young artist who can make his own, fun, youthful hits, but also keep up with one of rap’s greatest lyricists?

Some way, somehow, I hope this interview brings the original version of Young World, with Cordae’s verse, to the light.