The debut album for YBN Cordae was released last month and the reception has been positive in most hip-hop conversations. The Lost Boy is 15-tracks long and comes in as a relatively easy listen through.

The tracklist is ripe with star-studded talent and shows a ton of promise for the rising hip-hop star. Features form artist like Chance the Rapper, Pusha-T, Anderson .Paak, and even a production credit from J.Cole could spark interest from any hip-hop fan. Cordae does a great job of balancing out these exciting features with a voice of his own.

The album is an introspective journey into the mind of a young lyricist that is competing with a hip-hop culture that has seemingly put lyricism on the backburner of success.

The production is often soulful and engaging. Cordae’s voice flows over top of the instrumentals well and is reminiscent of an early J.Cole and Kendrick Lamar. I’m not comparing these two artists to Cordae bar for bar or even artist to artist; however, you can hear their influence throughout the entire project.

Tracks like “Have Mercy” and “Broke as Fuck” are attempts to maintain relevancy in a trap sound influenced culture. By no means are they bad songs, Cordae actually still comes through with some insightful bars; however, it’s clear it’s a stretch from his lyrical comfort zone.

Lyrically this project is impressive from start to finish and does a fantastic job of telling the introductory story of a new artist. Creating an original introduction is the goal with any debut album, and Cordae maintains a well-strung theme of introspection and analysis of the world around him.

On the albums opening track “Wintertime,”Cordae raps, I was lost like Dory, but I’m finally found/ Was addicted to the Xans to calm anxiety down/And I never would admit because society clowns/Any nigga with a problem, they can’t quiet me now.

It’s the personal bars like these that fill the listener with a sense of relatability and help paint a vivid picture of who Cordae is as a human being, not just as a musical artist.

These personal revelations continue on tracks like “Family Matters,” Where Cordae speaks on family relationships and issues with a transparent perspective.

Overall the album is engaging and interesting throughout and has a lot more hit than miss. A few of the tracks fall into a bit of forced conscious persona, which at times can be just as bad as overly braggadocious lyrical content. With that said, much of the material feels very personable and genuine to Cordae as a person. As the resident lyricist in the YBN group, this is an excellent introduction to an artist that many people in the culture are intrigued to see grow over the next few years.

Top Tracks:
1.Family Matters
2.RNP (Ft. Anderson .Paak )
3.Bad Idea(Ft. Chance The Rapper)

Overall score: 7.4

Listen to the album here for yourself and let me know what you think.