YBN Cordae‘s 2019 studio album ‘The Lost Boy‘ received high critical and industry praise, as the North Carolina native earned his first grammy nomination for his debut project which also saw features from rap heavyweights such as Pusha T, Meek Mill and Chance the Rapper. Given the hype surrounding the 22 year old rapper, it was a surprise to see him announce shows at London’s Scala concert venue, one of the smaller venues in London, but I seized the opportunity to catch an artist destined for much bigger things, in a relatively intimate setting.

Throughout the show Cordae emphasised how grateful he was to be there, repeating: “‘You coulda been anywhere in the world tonight, but y’all here with me and I love the f**k out of y’all for that man, for real.“

One of the highlights for me on Cordae’s debut album, was how effortlessly he switched between more introspective, storytelling tracks such as ‘Thousand Words‘ and the more energetic and hyperactive tracks like the lead single ‘Have Mercy‘. During his live show, Cordae kept his set diverse, as he juxtaposed the energetic full venue mosh-pit tracks with more personal cuts. The show started with Cordae sat on a stool for the track ‘Wintertime‘, which worked well to bring the focus onto Cordae’s clever lyricism.

Meanwhile for tracks like ‘Broke as F**k‘, Cordae was quick to ditch the stool as he ran around, hyping up the crowd as he repeated the track three times – calling for a bigger mosh pit each time: “I wanna get sued by the f**king venue cause we done tore this s**t down tonight.” Cordae had the crowd in the palm of his hands and proved his showmanship. His stage presence was dominating in the intimate venue of Scala, but we all got the feeling that he’d have been just as comfortable in a venue double, or triple the size.

Throughout ‘The Lost Boy‘ album, I was impressed with Cordae’s sung hooks on most of the tracks: given the frequent usage of autotune in modern rap music, I was pleasantly surprised to see Cordae sing all his hooks pitch-perfect during his live show, often repeating the hooks again a cappella after the track for a sing-a-long with the crowd, like on the track ‘Bad Idea’, to further emphasise not just his rapping ability, but his class singing voice too.

It was clear that he was grateful for all the support he was receiving at such an early stage in his career, as he preached to the crowd: “Every-f**king-body in this building tonight is a day one Cordae fan…cause we just getting started man, cause two years from now when I’m selling out that fucking arena across the street, y’all gonna be able to say y’all was here tonight.”

His positivity didn’t just feel like blind optimism and as he saw out his show with the standout track ‘RNP‘, Cordae oozed with confidence, as if he knew how great his performance had been. I’m certain the next time I see him, he’ll be playing much bigger venues and to a much bigger fan base.