Throughout the conversation, he’s inquisitive, thoughtful, and careful with his answers, the exact approach he applies to his career, one that began to take shape when he was still a kid playing with Tonka trucks.
Born in 1997 in Raleigh, North Carolina to a 16-year-old single mother, Cordae Amari Brooks had the advantage of being exposed to the tail end of arguably hip-hop’s best era, often referred to as the “golden era.”
“If you’re Black in America, hip-hop is not something you discover, it’s just there,” he said, his light brown eyes firmly focused on the road. “[Growing up with younger parents] definitely helped a lot because my parents—my mom more so and my stepdad at the time—were listening to Jay-Z’s The Blueprint and ‘Money Ain’t a Thang.’ So whoever was that super-hot artist at the time… I remember listening to College Dropout when it first came out as a 5-year-old. I remember listening to T.I., DMX, and Nas on four-hour car rides.”
Photo Credit: Carlos Kaito Araujo
He tells me about a trip to Walmart with his mom when he was just 4. As he strolled through the aisles, he was singing a T.I. song called “24″ that includes the lyrics “Cause I’ve been dranking/And I’ve been smoking.”
“This older white guy kept looking at me, and my mom was just so embarrassed,” he says with a laugh. “She’s like, ‘Oh, my god.’ But as far as my musical taste and style, having younger parents helped me mature faster.”
That was evident in his 2022 TED Talk, where he outlined what he calls his “hi-level mindset” and jokingly referred to himself as a “critically acclaimed, world-renowned B-list celebrity.” His presentation was smart and funny, and exuded a wisdom atypical of a male in his early 20s.
“I switched elementary schools about five different times,” he explained in his talk. “I remember one time [my mother’s] car had gotten stolen twice in one week. She overcame circumstance, obstacles, her environment, and negativity. As I watched, our living situations would continue to get better and better as the years went by. That’s hi-level.”
Armed with these lessons of perseverance and resilience, Cordae kept searching for a way to improve his living situation. He vividly remembers moving into his grandmother’s home and seeing an infestation of roaches exploding behind her dresser.
“That shit was just covered in them,” he says with disgust. “I was only 9 or 10 at the time and I remember thinking, ‘Man, this is some bullshit.’ I remember complaining to my aunt, who was just six years older than me, and she said, ‘This is real life. There are roaches on the wall and the carpet smells like piss. Why don’t you rap about that?’”
Even at that young age, Cordae had already been rapping for a few years. He replied to his aunt, “‘Damn, that’s not a bad idea.’ As a 10-year-old, I was rapping about money, cars, clothes, and having girls—straight lying.”
There was a point when he was “obsessed” with money, at least that’s what his mother told him. But he had good reason, and part of that reason pushed him to grind harder.
“I would come out with a hustle every year, whether it be selling candy, trading and buying shoes, or working at a barbershop,” he says. “I just wanted to have money when I got older. I would tell my mom, ‘No offense, but I don’t want to live like this.’ I think that definitely motivated me as far as work ethic.”
While he wasn’t exactly an honor roll student, Cordae graduated from high school in 2015 and later attended Towson University in Maryland, where he was briefly derailed by the typical college freshman experience — too much partying. Noting that college was something he did for his mother and not necessarily what he wanted to do, Cordae eventually dropped out and moved to Los Angeles in pursuit of a music career.
It paid off.
After years of making mixtapes and gaining little traction, Cordae released his first official single in May 2018, a remix of Eminem’s 1999 hit “My Name Is,” which he called his “introduction to the world.” He followed up with “Old Niggas” — a direct response to J. Cole’s divisive “1985” about the younger rap generation — and “Fighting Temptations” and “Kung Fu.”
His breakthrough continued that month, when he made his live performance debut at the Rolling Loud Festival sharing the stage with friends and former rap crewmates YBN Nahmir and YBN Almighty Jay. Cordae was then announced as an opening act for Juice’s WRLD Domination Tour, covering 28 cities in North America. Cordae suddenly found himself staring at the precipice of fame.
Months later, he was nominated in both the Best Rap Album and Best Rap Song categories at the 62nd Grammy Awards for his 2019 major label debut The Lost Boy (Art@War/Atlantic Records), and his star was suddenly a supernova.
Weaving elements of classic hip-hop with traditional rhyming skills and a youthful energy, The Lost Boy was praised for its crossover appeal. Now, it wasn’t just Gen Z welcoming him into the fold, it was Gen X, millennials, and maybe even some of their parents. The project debuted at No. 13 on the Billboard 200, selling more than 25,000 copies in its opening week.
His 2022 sophomore record, From a Birds Eye View, sent him into even higher orbit, with appearances by Gunna, Lil Wayne, H.E.R., Lil Durk, Freddie Gibbs, Stevie Wonder, Eminem and Roddy Ricch. Once again, it debuted at No. 13 on the Billboard 200 and was celebrated for its top-tier storytelling.
Fame is something he’s beginning to accept as just part of his life, but he’s relieved he’s not “Michael Jackson famous.”
“I’m like real-deal famous, like when I go to the grocery store,” he said. “People recognize me when I go shopping pretty much in every major city in the world. It’s definitely a blessing that people recognize me from the art.”
Still driving and reminiscing, Cordae recalled going overseas with his younger brother, who was blown away by Cordae’s international notoriety.
“We were in London and I had on a mask and a do-rag,” he said. “I don’t know how the fuck, but somebody still recognized me. My little brother was like, ‘Yo, people know you in London and Paris. That’s fucking crazy!’
Photo Credit: Carlos Kaito Araujo
“It’s a weird construct, being famous, honestly. At least I’m not like ‘I can’t go outside’ famous. I feel like that would be super annoying. When I go out in public, I definitely get recognized and somebody might secretly record me, but for the most part, people are pretty respectful. I’m the right amount of famous.”
Cordae was accustomed to getting even more attention when he started dating tennis player Naomi Osaka in 2019. After roughly five years together and one child, Osaka announced their amiable breakup on social media in January 2025, just a week before our interview. In an Instagram post, she insisted, “No bad blood at all; he’s a great person and an awesome dad.”
For Cordae, it appeared to be business as usual. He continued pushing his latest album, The Crossroads, which arrived in November 2024. As the title suggests, Cordae has listened to a lot of Bone Thugs-n-Harmony, whose biggest song, 1995’s “Tha Crossroads,” is repurposed for the album’s intro. Other elements of bygone eras are also sprinkled throughout the project, including Barbara Mason, Fugees, and Luther Vandross, highlighting his mature musical palate.
Artistically, Cordae is still rapping in an elite class and with enough technical skill to impress anyone in his field. Commercially, he’s keenly aware that his last album didn’t perform as well as his first two albums (it debuted at No. 143). However, since becoming a father, his priorities have slightly shifted.
“Being a dad makes me realize what’s truly important,” he said. “In order to succeed in the music or entertainment business, you gotta dedicate your life to this shit. When you dedicate your life to something and give it your all, some random music critic could say an hour after I drop something I just put my heart soul into, that it wasn’t dope. That shit could hurt your feelings, but I got a daughter. She’s well fed, taken care of, got a roof over her head, and she’s healthy. The rest of y’all can suck my dick.”
Photo Credit: Carlos Kaito Araujo
And now we’re back to that hi-level mindset, which includes the capacity to rise above any negativity and get back to what truly matters. That doesn’t mean he doesn’t care about his music and hip-hop culture in general; he cares. A lot.
“When you’re all the way invested and you love this shit, and you put your time, effort, heart — everything — into this shit, you’re gonna be sensitive about it and you’re gonna care about it. I give a fuck about this shit. I give a fuck about artistic integrity. I give a fuck about putting that time, effort, energy, thought, love, and care into music.
“But me having a kid? That’s what really matters.”
Fatherhood has changed him in ways that benefit his career too. As he explained to me, he’s a lot more disciplined when it comes to “making music at an accelerated rate.”
“Sometimes you’d be in the studio just vibing and chilling, playing video games and talking with your homies,” he said. “Now it’s like, ‘Nah, bro, it’s war.’ Some of that stuff is still needed in the sense of conversation, enjoyment, and having fun in the studio. That’s still there because that’s a part of the creation process, but this shit is war. I’m not here to play games.”
That’s what he plans to do for the rest of 2025, keep his foot on the gas.
“My goal is to drop higher quality at a higher quantity,” he says. “I know what that takes, so that’s where I’m at. I just want to get better and do it more frequently and not overthink; find that perfect balance between putting thought into things but not overthinking.”
Cordae’s childhood dreams have come true. He was able to climb out of poverty and live a life he couldn’t have imagined. And although he’s only 27, he’s got an old soul, something he’s been told for years.
“I’ve been getting that since I was 10 years old,” he says with a chuckle. “It’s because I had super young parents and had to kind of mature fast. I was also the ‘man of the house’ at a very young age, too. I think those two things definitely shaped my perspective.”
Things are looking up for Cordae. While he may have a song called “Mad As Fuck” on The Crossroads, he struggled to pinpoint what he’s mad about today.
Part of the hi-level mindset is “always remain positive,” something he’s clearly mastered.
“I haven’t been mad as fuck as of late, honestly, just more so disappointed,” he reveals. “But mad? I haven’t been mad as fuck.”
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