Cordae’s From a Birds Eye View was one of the most anticipated releases to come from this week’s New Music Friday arrivals. In a recent interview with Zane Lowe of Apple Music, the 24-year-old North Carolina native opened up about his friendship with Gunna and Lil Durk – both of whom appear on the new project – being influenced by superstars like Nas and Eminem, and giving famous friends an early preview of his work.
When asked about his mentality going into the making of his sophomore album, the “Super” recording artist explained, “I always just try to outdo myself with everything. And I’m not one to live in the past to think about the past.” He continued, “I like to be present and have infinite gratitude presently. But then, also look as a futurist and think about what can I do to take everything creatively, musically artistically to a whole nother level.”
Cordae told Lowe that he doesn’t use the term “good friend” lightly, but he considers both Gunna and Lil Durk to fall into that category. When speaking on he and Wunna’s “Today” collab, he said, “so Gunna, we made that record when we was in Australia. We were both doing a festival run in Australia and we travelling together essentially, like back-to-back tours and whatever.”
“Like he is just a really good guy, like straight up, just a stand-up dude. He on pusha P – he pushing P for real. Same with Lil Durk, man, he’s been a supporter of mine since like three years ago… He was like you a G.O.A.T young… Durk tweeted that. He said that publicly, that’s not something he just told me in private, he tweeted that. Show love like that, man. That’s something I don’t take for granted.”
Elsewhere in the Apple Music interview, Cordae revealed that he sent early copies of From a Birds Eye View to Chris Paul, Dave Chappelle, and Colin Kapernick, sharing that all three of them are also his good friends. “They’ll send me like some sneakers or something exclusive before it comes out, always. But so I just like to return the favour,” the rapper explained.
The Raleigh-born star admitted that he’s a Nas baby “all day,” confirming that “most of [his] style and influence comes directly” from the King’s Disease II hitmaker. “I’ll say that all day. Like my style, my cadences, like Nas directly influenced me, just straight up. Like there is no me without Nas.”
Cordae also took the time to give another influence – Eminem – his flowers. “Eminem man, definitely. You know, my first song that I came out with was the ‘My Name Is (Remix)’. So that tells you all, I need to say about what I think of Eminem and how much his music has meant to me.”
When giving insight into how he came up with his album title, The Lost Boy rapper said, “I’m giving you things that I’ve experienced, things that I’ve witnessed, things that I live and gone through, but from a bird’s eye view. And also, it means to see things from a zoomed-out lens. To see things from a more broadened perspective.”
“Because as humans, again, we tend to always think like, it’s about me, me, me, me, me and the world revolves around me. But sometimes, we have to see things from a more zoomed-out lens and take a step back and see what someone else’s perspective. So it’s like a multi-perspective album, for sure.”
Check out a video of Cordae’s interview with Zane Lowe on New Music Daily below.