Cordae is hitting the road in 2025 with The Crossroads Tour, a 23-city trek that begins on February 5 at Ace of Spades in Sacramento, CA. The tour will stop in major cities like Los Angeles, Houston, Atlanta, Toronto, and New York before concluding in Chicago at Concord Music Hall on March 16. Fans can secure their tickets through Cordae’s official website.
The tour celebrates the release of his critically acclaimed album, The Crossroads, available now via Atlantic Records. Executive produced by Smoko Ono, the 16-track album features collaborations with Joey Bada$$, Lil Wayne, Anderson .Paak, Juicy J, Ty Dolla $ign, Kanye West, and more, with standout singles like “Mad As Fuck,” “Syrup Sandwiches,” “Saturday Mornings,” and “Summer Drop.”
Multi-platinum, 3x GRAMMY® Award-nominated, and Emmy® Award-winning rapper Cordae will embark on The Crossroads Tour in 2025. The 23-city trek kicks off on Wednesday, February 5 at Ace of Spades in Sacramento, CA, making stops in Los Angeles, Houston, Atlanta, Toronto, New York, and more before wrapping up in Chicago, IL at Concord Music Hall on Sunday, March 16.
Cordae salutes Lil Wayne for inspiring him while creating The Crossroads album. On Instagram, Cordae shared details.
“The GOAT, Wayne, gave me great advice that I put on a whiteboard, ‘Treat every song like it’s people’s first time hearing you.’ And that was the standard we followed while making this jaint.”
Today, multi-platinum, 3x Grammy-nominated rapper Cordae releases The Crossroads, his third studio album. Featuring production from Executive Producer Smoko Ono and hitmakers Bongo ByTheWay, Dem Jointz, and others, the album is a reflection of Cordae’s personal journey. Drawing inspiration from pivotal moments in his life, the rapper explores themes of decision-making and the absence of “wrong” choices.
Ahead of the release, Cordae dropped singles like “Syrup Sandwiches” (feat. Joey Bada$$), “Saturday Mornings” (feat. Lil Wayne), and “Summer Drop” (feat. Anderson .Paak), each accompanied by visuals.
Today, multi-platinum, 3x Grammy-nominated rapper Cordae releases The Crossroads, his third studio album. Featuring production from Executive Producer Smoko Ono and hitmakers Bongo ByTheWay, Dem Jointz, and others, the album is a reflection of Cordae’s personal journey. Drawing inspiration from pivotal moments in his life, the rapper explores themes of decision-making and the absence of “wrong” choices.
Ahead of the release, Cordae dropped singles like “Syrup Sandwiches” (feat. Joey Bada$$), “Saturday Mornings” (feat. Lil Wayne), and “Summer Drop” (feat. Anderson .Paak), each accompanied by visuals.
“I wanted to get better, like, as a songwriter, as a rapper… verses… storytelling… beat selection and taste in beat selection… and that requires work and time, so I feel like this is my best foot forward thus far.” That’s Cordae speaking with Billboard on his brand-new and third studio album The Crossroads. Besides these aspirations and confident words, it’s been a project on fans’ radar. It’s for good reason too, because some of the singles leading up to today were pretty impeccable. “Summer Drop,” “Saturday Mornings,” and “Syrup Sandwiches” are some our personal favorites.
But does The Crossroads live up to its self-praise by its creative mind? Overall, we can see some improvements, especially in the wordplay and storytelling. It’s why those aforementioned tracks are thought of so highly. Where the album sort falls a little flat is in the more braggadocious pop rap cuts. “Mad as F*ck,” “Never See It,” and “Back on the Road” are couple of examples that just don’t have that oomph. While the beats on these tracks are certainly solid, we feel that this lane isn’t where Cordae truly feels at home. But generally speaking, there’s quality here and growth from the North Carolina spitter.
Somebody tell Cordae he already has the rent money. Hitting Power 106 in support of his new album, Cordae floated all across Cam’ron’s “Oh Boy” and GloRilla’s “TGIF, ” rapping like it was the crib on the line.
Jack Harlow loves hip hop. It’s become easy to pile on the “First Class” rapper for his pop-friendly approach, but he has spoken at length about the artists he listened to growing up and the passion he has for the genre. Jackman, his last album, was a testament to this. It should then come as no surprise that he would be willing to talk hip hop via social media. Jack Harlow played ten questions on Instagram on November 13, and one fan inquired about his favorite hip hop group. His answer was not at all what we expected.
The question had some easy candidates build in as potential answers. “Most legendary rap group,” the fan asked. “Between Wu-Tang, Dipset and A$AP Mob? Can only pick one.” Jack Harlow responded with a very concise and very surprising answer. He posted a photo of YBN Cordae and YBN Nahmir and wrote back: “Try again.” There you have it. Jack Harlow’s favorite rap group is YBN, which ran from 2014-2020 and released only one collaborative album. You’d be hard-pressed to find a hip hop fan who would put the YNB crew in the same company as say, Wu-Tang Clan or A$AP Mob, but we have to hand it to Jack Harlow for taking a left turn.
Jack Harlow has never worked with Nahmir, but he has gotten on a record with Cordae. In fact, he was able to rap alongside Cordae and a mutual hero of theirs, Eminem on the remix to “Killer.” Harlow gushed about the opportunity to collaborate with such notable talents during a 2021 interview with Billboard. “He gave me a lot of props that any artist would love to get,” Harlow said regarding Em. “Sometimes, the best gem is just somebody you admire, letting you know who you think you are. He let me know, ‘You’re that.’”
Jack Harlow’s endorsement could not have come at a better time for Cordae. The former YBN member is dropping his third studio album, The Crossroads, on November 15. The album will feature several rappers that Harlow has collaborated with in the past, including Lil Wayne and Kanye West. Cordae recently made headlines for asserting that he doesn’t “give one f*ck” about first week album sales, as well. Harlow, on the other hand, claimed that he has some “special sh*t” on the way during a recent Brooklyn concert.
Cordae is not a household name. He’s never had a smash single, or even been featured on a chart topping single by a bigger artist. He is, however, one of the most respected rappers in his age range. Cordae has dropped two critically acclaimed albums in the last five years. He’s also earned props from superstars like Lil Wayne and ASAP Rocky. Cordae’s third album, The Crossroads, is set for release on November 15, but he is not concerned in the slightest about the first week sales.
Cordae made this point crystal clear through a series of tweets on November 12. The rapper believed that first week sales were an overrated metric, and fail to accurately gauge whether an album is a real success. “Want to say this now I don’t give 1 f*ck about a first week sale,” the rapper wrote. “It’s a very inaccurate way to calculate impact, especially with the current streaming metrics.” Cordae went on to cite examples of first week sales being misleading metrics for an artist’s carer. “I seen somebody do 11K first week and then do a ARENA TOUR off the same album,” he claimed. “That’s the end of my Ted talk.”
In the 90/2000s music was consumed by people actually going to the stores and buying albums. When you did 100K first week that meant 100 thousand people went and bought the cd. Now you can have 300,000 people Listening to your album on streaming, and the units Equivalent is 200
Cordae’s sentiment was met with support by fans. Many commended the rapper for placing emphasis on quality, and the long term success of an album versus its first week of availability. There were some other fans, though, who felt that Cordae was using this approach to get out in front of potentially low numbers for The Crossroads. He had a response ready. “N**gas said my last project first week numbers wasn’t good,” he recalled. “And I ended up doing a sold out headline world tour.” He also detailed the ways in which music consumption has changed since he was a kid.
“In the 90/2000s music was consumed by people actually going to the stores and buying albums,” the rapper posited. “When you did 100K first week that meant 100 thousand people went and bought the CD.” He went on to note that streaming equivalent sales do not translate the same way. “Now you can have 300,000 people listening to your album on streaming,” he concluded. “Equivalent is 200.” Cordae likes where his career is at, and his fans seem to agree.
Cordae’s forthcoming album The Crossroads is due out this Friday, November 15. Before it hits streaming platforms, the “Syrup Sandwiches” rapper wanted to get something off of his chest.
Over on X (formerly Twitter), Cordae let data collecting critics know that he isn’t interested in The Crossroads‘ first week metrics. “Want to say this now I don’t give 1 f*ck about a first week sales,” he wrote. “It’s a very inaccurate way to calculate impact, especially with the current streaming metrics. I seen somebody do 11K first week and then do a ARENA TOUR off the same album. That’s the end of my Ted talk *2nd one.”
This year, there has been a growing trend of artists been shamed for album sales, streaming metrics, and chart placement especially in rap music.
Cordae went on to slam shamers, writing: “N****s said my last project first week numbers wasn’t good, and I ended up doing a sold out headline world tour.”
He then continued by taking a trip down memory lane reflecting on sales and consumer trends over the years. “In the 90/2000s music was consumed by people actually going to the stores and buying albums,” he wrote. “When you did 100K first week that meant 100 thousand people went and bought the CD. Now, you can have 300,000 people Listening to your album on streaming, and the units. Equivalent is 200.”
The Crossroads is due out 11/15 via Atlantic Records. You can find more information here.
Cordae is not messing around. The rapper has a solid resume thanks to albums like The Lost Boy and From a Bird’s Eye View, but he seems poised for a breakthrough. He’s been dropping some of his best music to date in 2024 in preparation for his upcoming album, Crossroads. The rapper has been hard at work on the album since 2022, which is set to be a direct sequel to From a Bird’s Eye View. It’s been a long wait, but Cordae has finally dropped the tracklist and guest features for Crossroads. And one look proves this thing will be worth the wait.
Crossroads boasts 16 tracks, which will make it his longest album to date. The rapper has hinted at a nostalgic theme running through the album, based on buzz singles like “Summer Drop” and “Saturday Mornings.” Both of these songs are present on the tracklist, and boast stunner guest appearances from Anderson .Paak and Lil Wayne. The latter has heaped praise upon Cordae in the past, and been cited as one of Cordae’s biggest influences. As a result, Weezy will also be featured on the song “Back on the Road.”
Cordae tapped some of his generational peers for Crossroads. Jordan Ward and Ravyn Lenae both appear on the song “Don’t Walk Away,” which is poised to be an R&B stunner given the talent on hand. Joey Badass will also drop by for inevitable bar-fest that will be “Syrup Sandwiches.” The rest of the album, however, will feature rappers that Cordae grew up listening to. In addition to two Weezy guest spots, Crossroads will boast appearances from Juicy J and Kanye West. Juicy J will drop by for “Neva Seen It,” while West is set to rap on “No Bad News.”
Cordae has never worked with Kanye West before. He has, however, praised West several times in the past. Cordae rapped over West’s 2005 classic “Gone” during a viral concert clip in 2021. He also cited the Chicago rapper as his “biggest musical influence” during a 2022 interview with All the Smoke. He’s worked with Juicy J, however, appearing on the veteran emcee’s 2024 album Ravenite Social Club. We can’t wait to hear what Cordae has in mind for these collabs.
