My creativeness stems from my love of music. Music is pure emotion. Music is the infinity sign. Music is self-expression in its purest form - it's how I express my anger, my self-doubt, my love. I think my music is very vulnerable and very expressive, very transparent.Collection: Anger
Competition is the best form of motivation.Collection: Best
Just trust your intuition and beware of outsiders.Collection: Trust
I'm very protective of my energy. You have to protect your energy around outside sources because your positive energy can be canceled out by someone's dark energy.
I set my own goals higher than what anybody else has set for me.
Having a dope mindset and good energy is rare, and you just putting a little bit of your light into someone else can change their whole perspective on life just doing that.
I was working summer jobs since I was like 11.
If you can do something that's authentic to yourself, how you feel as a person, then it's gonna be different than everybody else because everybody's different.
I don't even really try to do something different. I just do what's authentic to me.
I can rippity rap, lyrical miracle all day, but if you don't have a message behind it and you not saying nothing, it doesn't make sense.
I was on the debate team.
Sometimes as friends, you grow apart and you have different visions for what you wanna do and that's OK, there's no love lost.
When I used to work at Friday's, in a restaurant, that endless appetizer, that was my worst enemy as a server. Oh my god.
I keep a composition book with me at all times to write rhymes, to write down ideas, write down my thoughts, you know just so I don't forget any ideas.
Fashion is definitely important. It's like peanut butter and jelly with hiphop music, you know what I'm saying? So, it's a part of you, a part of yourself as a person.
I always keep a hoodie on me at all times 'cause you never know when it's gonna rain, you never know when it's gonna get a little cold at night. So, you always got to keep a hoodie. And I always keep like a earth tone hoodie 'cause it always goes with your outfit no matter what you have on.
Everything I involve myself with is an extension of me, so I take everything super seriously, from the music to the shows. That's the only way to do it.
I want the biggest artist of 2030, 2027 or even 2025 to say, 'I was inspired by Cordae. Cordae is the reason I make music.'
Nas' storytelling was just fire.
I liked Big L's wordplay with the multi-syllable rhymes he hit so clean.
I want to impact the world and the culture in a positive way, spread super dope messages and help people through my music.
XXL is the embodiment of hip-hop... Eminem even shouted it out in a song.
Nas, Big L, Rakim, Jay-Z, Eminem, those was all my influences, but I didn't start recording until I was 16.
I bought an audio technician mic and Pro Tools SE, the demo version and was recording in the basement.
Jay-Z was huge. I was like 2 years old throwing up my diamond, rapping. I know all of 'The Blueprint.' I've heard that album 1,000 times. And 'Reasonable Doubt.'
I put XXL Freshman on my vision board.
I always wanted to be a Freshman because XXL is really important in the history of hip-hop. It embodies the culture.
Nas was a huge influence. That's probably my favorite rapper of all time.
I don't know, I really try not to pay attention to comparisons, 'cause I'm my own artist. I try to build my own sound.
I study all the greats.
People compare me to Kendrick. I've seen comparisons with Jay-Z, with Nas, with Chance The Rapper. I get a lot of Eminem comparisons.
If you're getting $80 a show, then you're not getting paid.
Nobody wants to be nameless. Nobody wanna be forgotten.
My mom is the best. She's the dopest. She just loves everything that's going on. She's very supportive.
I'm really grateful for my mom. And my mom always raised me being a single mother. Being a single mother, a lot of stress comes with that. You gotta work, you gotta come home and do everything.
I only know English, so I feel like I can be the dopest French rapper ever if I learned French.
Just stay true to myself. That's not even my goal. That's what you always have to do, 'cause at the end of the day when the cameras are off and you put your phone down, you got to live with yourself, be comfortable and sleep at night with the decisions you've made so I'm just always myself unapologetically.
Experimenting is part of the process. I remember when I was younger, I spent a whole year just writing on straight trap beats because I just wanted to be able to do that at a high level. So it's about perfecting your craft in every way.
I'm just trying to get better as an artist and as a human being. I feel like that's mad important.
I got a cool car but I live fairly regular.
Washington D.C. and the entire DMV area are very dope places because they're such musically-inclined areas.
I'm perfecting my craft as an artist and as a performer, and my shows are getting better each time.
I like to rehearse a lot. Before I hit the stage, I listen to the songs that I would perform and make sure I execute everything.
At a festival, the people there are not all your fans, and this gives me a chance to win over new people. I look at it as a challenge.
In YBN, we all have our own lanes. We're not necessarily a group. We're more of a collective - it's like a movement. It's like a brotherhood outside of music and everything has been organic.
I freestyled the hook to 'Target.' I got into cadence and then it sparked the idea.
You gotta be crazy to want beef with Eminem and MGK is that.
The last thing I want to do with my platform is bash another young black man who is getting money.
Puma just, they really rock with me the long way. They've been rockin with me for a while.
I just always wear Pumas. I like the work they do in local communities, worldwide.