The Lost Boy
| Ybn Cordae
The Lost Boy
The Lost Boy is the debut studio album by American rapper YBN Cordae. The album was released on July 26, 2019, through Atlantic Records and YBN Records, and contains features from Chance the Rapper, Anderson Paak, Ty Dolla Sign, Pusha T, Arin Ray, and Meek Mill. The album has received widespread acclaim from music critics. The album was later nominated for Best Rap Album at the 2020 Grammy Awards, while the album track "Bad Idea" is nominated for Best Rap Song.-Wikipedia
Critic Reviews
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Pitchfork
The Lost Boy remains Cordae’s show. At 15 songs, it could have used an edit, another voice in the room telling him to tone it down. But still, it’s an assured debut. Cordae raps about life with the patience of a pro but the wide-eyed wonder of a newborn. It’s a delicate balance, and he occasionally stumbles, but it’s promising to even watch him try.
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Genius
The Lost Boy is Maryland-native YBN Cordae’s debut album. As part of the YBN group, Cordae had tracks and collaborations on the 2018 project, YBN: The Mixtape, but this will be his first solo endeavor.
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Daily Nexus
YBN Cordae’s new album, “The Lost Boy,” shows his great mastery of music in a slightly different sector of rap than that of YBN Nahmir or YBN Almighty Jay, as his focus seems to be placed on lyrical formation over the more mumble-y rap of the others — it’s almost a little surprising that he’s even a part of the YBN group. However, this album shows that he can be, and is, a hugely successful solo rapper despite the growing popularity of the collective.
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Metacritic
The debut full-length studio release for the rapper features guest appearances from Anderson .Paak, Chance the Rapper, Meek Mill, Arin Ray, Pusha T, and Ty Dolla Sign.
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Billboard
Boasting 15 tracks in total, The Lost Boy finds Cordae trading bars with a slew of special guests. Look for cameos from Meek Mill, Pusha T, Chance The Rapper, Anderson .Paak, Ty Dolla $ign, and Arin Ray.
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Hip Hop DX
Everything that Cordae raps about in detail on this album can be summarized in the final track “Lost & Found.” Themes of desired success, known ability and future uncertainty encompass everything running through Cordae’s braid-covered head.
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iheart Radio
The Lost Boy, a 15-track studio album showcasing features from artists including Chance the Rapper, Anderson .Paak, Ty Dolla $ign, Pusha T, Meek Mill and Arin Ray.
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Clash Music
A strong debut from a rapper able to mix it with the best.
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All Music
The rapper's skills aren't in question on The Lost Boy, but the album sometimes overshoots in its ambition, aiming for too many styles to hit them all with excellence. It's still a strong collection, and when Cordae strikes a perfect balance of mellow production and lyrical power on standout tracks.
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Highnobiety
Well, Cordae’s studio debut The Lost Boy is an emphatic response to any doubters, with this heartfelt record one of the most grown up rap releases of the year; an impressive feat given its creator is only 21 years-old. This isn’t an album for fans of chaotic trap and moshing, but one that is designed as something for you to sit back and vibe to, and understanding this will be key to how much you enjoy the journey.
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Vibe
YBN Cordae’s 'The Lost Boy' debut shows he’s already on the right path.
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Istandard Producers
Rising star and recent XXL 2019 Freshmen, YBN Cordae released his first studio album, The Lost Boy. The DMV rapper broke out on the scene with his rebuttal to J. Cole’s 1995, “Old Niggas”. Cordae has shown the ability to deliver amazing lyrical performances that satisfy the boom-bap “real hip-hop” audience as well as the new age “trap” audience.
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Financial Times
The Lost Boy — an impressive hip-hop debut. With guests including Chance the Rapper, the 21-year-old’s album is an assured calling card. J. Cole released a song dismissing the generation of rappers below him as a shallow bunch of millennials with awful taste in music. Cordae’s debut album The Lost Boy shows an underlying respect for the sort of rap traditions that Cole personifies.
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Dj Booth
Cordae’s potential as a solo act has caught the industry’s attention. The excitement around his name is now centered around The Lost Boy, Cordae’s major label debut on Atlantic Records.
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Exclaim
The Lost Boy will feature previously released singles "Bad Idea" featuring Chance the Rapper and "Have Mercy."
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Everything Is Noise
Cordae‘s mid-tempo flow over classically shimmering, snappy production is a spot-on intro for The Lost Boy, the album and the literal person. I see potential in Cordae to be more than an amalgamation of his contemporaries, and even if there’s flashes of a derivative nature within The Lost Boy, his prowess is undeniable. I just hope he capitalizes on the moment that’s been given to him in a big way.
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Apple Music
YBN Cordae may be riding high off his inclusion in XXL magazine’s esteemed Freshman Class, but it’s not like he doesn’t know what it’s like to be down and out. “The Lost Boy represents anyone who hasn’t found their path or their calling yet.
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Complex
The Lost Boy, a 15-track project that includes contributions from Chance the Rapper (“Bad Idea”), Pusha-T (‘Nightmares Are Real”), Meek Mill (“We Gon Make It”), and J. Cole, who produced the Anderson .Paak-assisted “RNP.”
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Okayplayer
The album features appearances from Chance The Rapper, Ty Dolla $ign, Anderson .Paak, Meek Mill, Pusha-T, and more. On the production side, the DMV-rapper connected with some heavyweights: including J. Cole, Masego, Terrace Martin, SiR, Quincy Jones and more.
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Uproxx
On Cordae’s startlingly precocious debut, the young rapper imagines himself in the titular Lost Boy phase of the movie, finding out who he really is. In reality, he ends up reminding himself and the listener that he knows exactly where he came from and where he’s going. Despite his humble beginnings, he is destined for greatness. The balance that Cordae finds on The Lost Boy is impressive, especially when contrasted with the polished quality of the beat choices, song sequencing, and restrained application of skits that tie it all together. This is the sort of album that many artists struggle to craft years into their career, but Cordae nails on his first attempt.
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Alive
YBN Cordae, born Cordae Dunston in Raleigh, North Carolina, released a string of mixtapes with titles that explicitly revealed his jittery state of mind. Similar emotions swirl throughout the rapper’s 2019 debut, The Lost Boy, which earned Cordae a Grammy nomination for Best Rap Album, the MC confronting depression (“No amount of likes can heal up all this pain that I’m feeling,” he confesses on “Thousand Words”) and his troubled upbringing (“Nightmares Are Real” traces the roots of his anxiety to the death of his grandmother). But where past releases sometimes felt bleak, The Lost Boy, which traces a lifetime of bumps and bruises, is cut through with at least some sunlight, Cordae gradually pivoting from his past to a comparatively wide-open future.
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Eugene Weekly
The track, along with Cordae’s remix to J. Cole’s “1985,” brilliantly explains what most of us already knew: that the narrow-mindedness of golden era rap fans, who value rap with a perceived social message, has led to their inability to understand that while the music may sound different, the message is still the same — and the art is even more powerful.
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Hit Up Ange
One of the most impressive things about The Lost Boy is how Cordae was able to get the absolute best out of an elite group of features. While every single A-List emcee Cordae called upon answered and came with heat, Pusha T just might outshine all the other bright lights on this album.
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Yahoo
The 15-track collection includes collaborations with Chance the Rapper (“Bad Idea”), Anderson .Paak (“RNP”), Pusha-T (“Nightmares Are Real”), and Meek Mill (“We Gon Make It”).
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Rhyme Junkie
Throughout his debut album – although fifteen tracks deep – there is a fluid time clock that allows the listener to take a trip through different stages of his experience.
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Rutgers Radio WRSU 88.7 FM
YBN Cordae’s The Lost Boy is my favorite hip-hop album of 2019. Every aspect of the music came together perfectly. The beats are engaging, Cordae’s energy is high, his flow is sharp, and best of all, his lyricism is on point. When Cordae raps, there’s never a dull moment. He is either giving you a passionate, fast-paced combination of bars, or he is calmly reflecting on his past struggles and journey throughout life.
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Ear Candy Music
With The Lost Boy, Cordae makes good on the promise hinted at on YBN: The Mixtape, turning in a front-to-back redemption tale. It is Cordae at his most humble. It’s occasionally corny and self-serious. But its 15 tracks show a star slowly finding his voice and bursting into the mainstream.
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Lyrical Lemonade
While the material leading up to The Lost Boy introduced listeners to a rapper with unquestionable technical skill, the album provides a resounding answer to the question of “who is YBN Cordae”. It’s a feat that requires a level of artistic reflection that could take some musicians a whole career to find. But Cordae proves he’s well ahead of the curve, drawing relatable connections to formative moments in his own life. In the process, he’s offered a rap album that entices listeners to come back, perhaps when they experience similar feelings of lostness that inspired the project’s conception.
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Chicago Reader
YBN Cordae sounds like he could charm the entire music industry on The Lost Boy.
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Cool Accidents
Rapper YBN Cordae has hit fans with a double whammy, ahead of his upcoming debut album The Lost Boy. The album, which comes out on Friday, July 26th, was already set to include Cordae's collaboration with Chance The Rapper, Bad Idea, but he's now revealed the rest of the tracklist, and it's full of some of the biggest names in hip-hop. The album is set to feature verses from Anderson .Paak, Ty Dolla Sign, Meek Mill, Pusha T and more, proving the respect that Cordae has gained from his peers, even without a prolific discography so far.
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Karen Civil
The Lost Boy features appearances from some mainstream artist including Chance The Rapper, Anderson .Paak, Ty Dolla $ign, Pusha T, Arin Ray, Meek Mill, and a production credit from J. Cole.
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Sway's Universe
A 15-track album with features from Chance the Rapper, Ty Dolla $ign, Pusha T, Arin Ray, and Meek Mill. This young rapper has a lot of skill and potential. There is no doubt that he is the future of hip-hop.
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Medium
Branching out from the old generation to create this impact becomes prevalent in the first act of The Lost Boy. He shares his fear, angst, and ambition that comes with stepping into adulthood with big dreams on a trap-driven banger (“Have Mercy”), and creatively re-interpolates the same spiritually-forlorn chorus on a gospel-tinged piano duet with his grandmother (“Sweet Lawd - Skit”). On this duo of tracks, he makes the same words musically stirring for the youngest and oldest generations living today, which acts as a perfect segue into the melancholy, overwhelm, and maturation that comes with leaving one’s home.
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Study Breaks
YBN Cordae steps into his debut album with confidence, hunger and extreme determination, and he has mastered the art of the remix. His bravery in remixing some of the biggest names in hip-hop, such as Eminem and J. Cole, distinguishes him from other artists. On “The Lost Boy,” YBN Cordae reflects and agonizes over moments when he didn’t believe in himself.
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Soul Bounce
The Lost Boy is sure to put any doubts to rest. The 15-track project kicks off with the mellow and melodic “Wintertime,” with the 21-year old recounting his past and pondering his future. Next up is the album’s lead single "Have Mercy,” followed by the singing skit “Sweet Lawd” and then the inspiring and introspective “Bad Idea” featuring Chance the Rapper. Just as we settle into the relaxed and reflective mood of these tracks, we are jolted to the edge of our seats with the J. Cole-produced “RNP” featuring Anderson .Paak.
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Festival Peak
YBN Cordae’s The Lost Boy made me laugh, cry, shake my head, ball my hands into fists, and rethink rap. The July 26, 2019 release features 15 loaded, essential tracks, heavily influenced by his father’s classic hip-hop collection growing up in Suitland, Md. — and his own struggles trying to make it.
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Fux Withhit
The Lost Boy is a versatile but focused debut proving YBN Cordae is here and he’s the future.
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Cassius
YBN Cordae finds himself at a pivotal moment in his career with the release of his debut project, The Lost Boy. Chance the Rapper, Anderson .Paak, Ty Dolla $ign, Pusha T, Meek Mill, and Arin Ray are among the album’s guests. Meanwhile, J. Cole, Terrace Martin, Masego, Dem Jointz, Cardiakk, and Daytrip are among the LP’s producers.
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The Face
As debut albums go, the 21-year-old Cordae’s eclipses the competition in contemporary rap. The Lost Boy is the kind of album that lyrically-focused rappers stuck in the new talent tar pits at labels like Dreamville and Top Dawg aspire – and fail – to make.
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Mtv News
YBN Cordae arrives in splendor with an album boasting big features and an even bigger presence. He isn't lost, at least not anymore. The Lost Boy is 15 tracks long and features both "Bad Idea" and "RNP." Along with both Chance and .Paak, J. Cole (who produces "RNP"), Ty Dolla $ign, Arin Ray, Meek Mill, and Pusha T all guest star on the LP.
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Colossus Music
Cordae immediately hits us with his talent. On the intro track to the album, “Wintertime”, we are met with smooth, elegant verses and a very well done, harmonic hook. This smoothness continues throughout on almost every track’s hook. They are each catchy in their own way while remaining melodic and fitting the overall vibe.
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4or My People
There are few rappers whose music bridges the gap between old-school and new. YBN Cordae fits into that category, pleasing the “get off my lawn” crowd with endless bars while satisfying his peers with sweet melodies and infectious hooks. On July 25, 2019, the 21-year-old YBN emcee dropped his debut album, The Lost Boy, a 15-track project with features from Chance the Rapper aka Creflo Scammer (“Bad Idea”), Pusha-T (“Nightmares Are Real”), Meek Mill (“We Gon Make It”) and J.Cole, who produced “RNP,” an Anderson .Paak-assisted hit.
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Hot New Hip Hop
Cordae is a capable songwriter, hook line to mainline, and everything in between. If anything, The Lost Boy reminded us to pay more attention to Arin Ray, whose contributions on "Family Matters" are hella purposeful and not the least bit contrived. Cordae has nowhere to go but UP, if and only if, he breaks this pattern of nostalgia rap. The mundane is to be cherished until it's ready to take root; Cordae struck too soon.
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Grunge Cake
Cordae’s palette ranges between emotional, heartfelt, introspective and upbeat, as you listen to the album track-by-track. The most impressive element of ‘The Lost Boy’ album is that it does a complete 180 as far as subject matter goes; addressing topics such as cheating, family issues, thankfulness, and joy. Rather than mumbling over catchy beats, he leans toward lyricism and thought-provoking rhymes. Cordae is a standout talent.
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Daily Rap Facts
Cordae has been praised for his incredibly diverse, complicated, and introspective lyricism; he has a lyrical talent that can definitely be prepared with the likes of JID, Kendrick Lamar, and J. Cole. The Lost Boy has quite a few high profile features, Arin Ray, Chance the Rapper, Ty Dolla $ign, Pusha T, Meek Mill, and Anderson.Paak all give contributions to the rising star’s debut album.
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Focus Hip Hop
This album was released on July 26th this year. YBN Cordae seems to be a lot of kids’ favorite rapper right now. Pretty much every other person on the planet has made this comparison already, but he’s basically J. Cole lite. The album got off to a pretty great start. The production does in fact sound exactly like something I’d hear on a J. Cole album, but it’s still pretty good.
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24Hip-Hop
Arriving at 15 tracks, including “Have Mercy,” the album comes equipped with features from Chance The Rapper (“Bad Idea”), Pusha T, Anderson .Paak (“RNP“), Ty Dolla $ign, Arin Ray, and Meek Mill. The album also features J. Cole, Terrace Martin, Bongo By The Way, Masego, SiR, Syd, Kid Culture, and more.
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Not Ya Manz
This is a complete project. Its allot of what he shines at, and it also has its dips into some new territory, things you haven’t heard him do and things that sadly wanting to get into the mainstream you have to touch on. Regardless, he hits every nail on the head.
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Skraphouse
The Lost Boy features many A-list guests including Meek Mill, Pusha T, Anderson .Paak and Chance The Rapper. Cordae’s album sounds like a distant cousin of Coloring Book. Much of the album has that kind of spirituality the Chicago rapper wraps himself in.
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Viking Logue
YBN Cordae has long promised to bridge the generational divide in rap and his debut solo album, The Lost Boy, is his most serious effort yet to realize this aspiration. The Lost Boy weaves jazzy hooks and golden age flows with modern production.
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