Newcomer YBN Cordae has impressed the hip hop world with his debut effort The Lost Boy and continues to prove that he's a young force to be reckoned with. In interviews, Cordae has spoken openly about being the bridge between the old school hip hop that he grew up admiring and the new generation that he's apart of. “I feel like, in the last four years, music hasn’t been that dope,” he recently told the Los Angeles Times. “Fans are starting to get smarter and realize that people aren’t putting as much time into their craft. They want more quality. We don’t need twenty-song tapes anymore. Give us ten quality ones.”
While many of Cordae's peers are opting for internet fame over lyrical content and quality, the 21-year-old remains focused on becoming a legend in hip hop like the greats that he's studied throughout his youth. Showing that his lessons weren't in vain, Cordae shared a throwback black and white clip of himself spittin' verses. "Dear younger me, you still haven't figured everything out yet but you're on the right path. ⭐️ #TheLostBoy," Cordae wrote in the caption.
Veteran rapper Common was so taken aback by Cordae's skills that he questioned whether or not the video was real. "Is this an app? If not, this is fresh!!" Cordae assured him that this was, indeed, a pre-puberty version of himself at a young age. "Haha nah no app, this hip hop sh*t just in my DNA."