Songs

YBN Cordae Responds to J. Cole’s “1985” with “Old Ni**as”

blame it on Shake May 17, 2018

As the YBN name continues to grow thanks to YBN Nahmir and YBN Almighty Jay’s recent runs, there’s another artist in the collective that we all should be paying attention to — YBN Cordae.

Formally going by Entendre, the North Carolina-bred, DMV-fed emcee made some noise last year with the release of his I’m So Anonymous album. And now, he’s throwing himself into the limelight with a quality response to J. Cole’s “1985.”

Recently naming Nas, Kanye, 2pac, Kendrick and J. Cole as his musical influences, it makes sense the young MC would feel some type of way towards the KOD outro.

But, instead of going for Cole’s jugular like the “Old N*ggas” title would suggest, Cordae attempts to bridge the gap between generations. “I understand both sides, let me break it in half,” he raps over the boom bap-driven beat.

From there, the well-thought response is backed by “false idol” claims, before reminding listeners things could be a lot worse if these same young artists didn’t have music to rely on and were forced to run the streets instead.

Lately all my idols they been failing me
Catching sexual assaults and some felonies
Then you want me to listen what you telling me
And wanna hate when we sing our little melodies
And other idols they be broke, get your funds in order
And Kanye West is a Trump supporter
Then we got R. Kelly and Bill Cosby
Who still probably got lil girls in the Hills lobby
And these supposed to be our heros? Negro please
Old n*ggas unreliable like D-Rose knees

It feel good when I wear Christian Louboutins
So I gotta drop music to accrue some funds
And I get it, that’s the mindset that’s killing the rhyme-fest
But feeding our families, lowering the crime yet
You want us to be separate and make a contest
Rapping to stay up out the streets, shouldn’t mind that
Staying out of prison and we saying f*ck the system man
Rapping is an outlet to go and get our dividends
Rather than out robbing n*ggas, selling Ritalin

To be honest, I wasn’t aware of Cordae until this morning. But after hearing this and his recent take on Eminem’s “My Name Is,” I’m looking forward to giving I’m So Anonymous a spin and hearing what he’s got coming down the pipeline.