Cordae, From A Bird’s Eye View

By Leo Hewitt-Provost

01/14/2022

After almost three years since his last release with his debut album ‘The Lost Boy’, Cordae announced in late 2021 that his second project from a Birds Eye view was scheduled to come out on the 14th of January 2022. 

The rapper born in North Carolina, also announced tour dates and released 2 singles ahead of its album release, the first one called Super which was released in October 2021 and served as an amuse bouche for his fans, who had waited a long time for new music.

The second single titled ‘Sinister’ was released in early December, a month before the released date of the studio album and featured one of hip-hop’s most successful artists of all time: Lil Wayne.

Sinister sounds like everything its title is suggesting, the song produced by Hit-Boy is very dark, sinister and goes straight to the point, Cordae does not sound out of touch next to Lil Wayne and the two rappers display their confidence on the song.

The track list ‘From a Birds Eye View’ was released a few days before the album was supposed to come out and had many people excited. The album features the likes of Gunna, Lil Durk, H.E.R, Freddie Gibbs, Stevie Wonder, and as previously mentioned Lil Wayne.

Eminem is also featuring on a remix of Parables, a song that was originally released back in 2020, but served as a dessert after Cordae explained on Twitter earlier today that it was important to listen to this body of work from top to bottom- from track 1 to 12, the way it was intended-. Although the album is actually 14 tracks long, Gifted featuring Roddy Rich and Ant Clemons was also added onto the album.

The album starts with Shiloh’s intro, his childhood friend, who raps from a prison cell, over a minimalistic but dark instrumental.

The production on this album is almost flawless, something Cordae has always made sure to happen. On Jean-Michel, the beat is heavy, and the bass is immense, something he has been able to balance throughout the project, allowing some songs to speak for themselves with a heavy production, whilst on songs like Momma’s hood, which is very reflective with its lyrics, Cordae allows himself to use various melodies, whilst half singing and rapping. Something he does remarkably well and something he perhaps should get more credit for.

On Want from Me, Cordae reminisces on his early life, talking about faith and talking about his mother, the production is not as heavy as previous songs but allow for the rapper to express himself more easily, I cannot help but think Anderson. Paak influenced the Maryland rapper on this song, on the chorus he would have fitted in perfectly.

On Chronicles, featuring H.E.R and Lil Durk, the subject matter discussed here is love, and H.E.R is one of the best in the industry to fit on this song, the variety in the album is very remarkable, sonically it works and Lil Durk also brings a personal touch to the song, although his verse is very short, Durk will have a remarkable year too without a doubt. 

My top three highlights on the album have to be Today featuring Gunna, Champagne Glasses featuring Freddie Gibbs and Stevie Wonder- probably the most technical track on the album-, and Westlake High which sounds like the apogee of Cordae’s career, although he is only getting started and says he is going to be here for a long time. I hope he is too, the song is flawless.

The 24 year old rapper has done remarkably well with his second studio album, the fact that he says himself that he is his biggest critic, it is so refreshing to see and hear someone who sounds so confident in his music but openly admits that critic is essential for progression.

'From a Bird's Eye View' is a very versatile body of work and is very good, with a flawless production, my only regret would be that I wanted to hear more songs from Cordae. Just have to be more patient now.