Koncert Review: YBN Cordae is The Lost Boy in Brooklyn

Chicago rapper Cordae has made quite a name for himself. He had quite a Soundcloud-oriented origin as a member of the group YBN, which first met over the video game Grand Theft Auto V.

Their first artist to breakout was YBN Nahmir, known for the singles “Rubbing Off the Paint” and “Bounce Out With That”. Since then though, it is Cordae that has had both the critical and commercial eye, with his latest album The Lost Boy receiving a “Best Rap Album” nomination at the 2020 Grammy Awards.

As such, he is touring off quite a successful run, and it is in this context that he performed at Elsewhere       Hall, in Brooklyn, on February 11th. Concertgoers were greeted with a quaint forest theme, with trees set up around the stage as the audience was given fake milk boxes with “Missing child” posters of Cordae. Most notably, Cordae had a live band, consisting of synths, a drummer, and a bass guitarist.

Interestingly, Cordae introduced himself as simply that – without listing his group name, “YBN”, as part of his name. It’s clear that Cordae, especially in recent times, has been trying to further solidify his solo career. From this perspective, distancing himself from the YBN label is likely an important step for him.

Naturally, as a tour meant to support his album, Cordae largely performed songs off his latest album, “The Lost Boy”. However, he also performed many of his earlier hits, most notably “Kung Fu”. His sets were a nice mix of more mellow, singing-heavy tracks, and moshpit-producing bangers.

In the middle of his performance, he played and performed to the first verse of JuiceWRLD’s “Lucid Dreams”. Cordae was an opener for JuiceWRLD’s 2018 “WRLD Domination” Tour, so both were involved in each other’s early successes. 

He closed off with two performances of “RNP”, his hit single with artist Anderson.Paak. In the second performance, he invited an audience member on stage to perform Anderson’s parts, to enormous success. Unfortunately for some, no encore was performed. However, it’s safe to say that Cordae’s career is only beginning. In the end, he shouted out for his hopes to perform at Madison Square Garden 2 years from now. As such, it’s clear from this performance that he certainly has the potential for such.