-I'm excited to talk to you.
-I'm excited to talk to you, as well.
-Alright, good. I'm happy. -Good to see you, man.
It's been a long minute. -It has been a little bit.
I think last time, you were here with Anderson, right?
-Yes, sir, yep. -Thanks for coming back.
I know since your album --
the first album came out,
you've got two Grammy nominations?
-Yes, sir, two. [ Cheers and applause ]
-Come on, bud. -Thank you, thank you.
-Not too shabby. Not too bad. -Not too bad.
-Well, people knew -- People predicted that
you were going to be this successful.
This is a photo we found from your yearbook.
Look at this. -Oh, yeah.
-"Most Likely to be Famous."
[ Cheers and applause ]
How did they predict this?
What were you like? -You know, stars are born, man.
-Oh, my gosh. Oh, my gosh. -You know.
But I used to always drop, you know,
mix tapes very -- when I was younger.
I dropped my first mix tape when I was 15 years old.
I used to always perform at, like, the school talent shows.
Like, I was a rapper.
Like -- And it's not cool being an artist
before you're on Jimmy Fallon's couch, you know?
-No. Who did you want to be like?
Who were your idols?
-You know, Kanye West was a big idol of mine.
Kendrick Lamar.
-Yeah. -Nas. Jay-Z.
-Yeah. Yeah, a couple -- Yeah.
-You might have heard of them. -Yeah, a couple. Yeah, exactly.
What were your rhymes like when you were little?
How little were you when you were starting to write songs?
-I think my first rhyme, I might have been like 4 to 5 years old,
and it was like --
-5 years old? -Yeah, yeah.
I've been doing this for a minute.
-What would those be -- What would you be --
-It was like -- Something dumb like,
"Reese's Puffs and cuffs with earmuffs.
Look, man, I'm too tough.
'Cause I'm a survivor.
Y'all burn like hot lava." You know?
[ Cheers and applause ]
-Thanks for doing that. I loved that.
-Super G-rated. Super G-rated.
-Super G-rated. Absolutely, yeah.
Well, not only are you one of the biggest out there now
and working with everybody --
I mean, Dre, H.E.R., Eminem, Lil Wayne --
but you also have your own record label.
-Yeah.
-Talk about Hi Level. What is this?
-Yeah, so, Hi Level -- Y'all can clap for that.
-Yeah, absolutely. -Thank you, thank you.
[ Cheers and applause ] -It's a big deal.
-Yeah, thank you. Appreciate that.
But, you know, Hi Level -- it's more than just a record label.
It's really a mantra, a way of life, you know?
And I sort of had this epiphany, if you will,
right through the middle of a pandemic.
It's a frame of mind I always like to have.
Like, everything I do, I must do it at the highest level,
at a high level, the highest level of my capability.
So that's where Hi Level came from.
-When you go back home, does your mom
treat you like a big deal?
I mean, does the hometown go nuts or no?
Are you still just Cordae?
-you know, she's not that impressed, to be honest.
-Yeah, that's what moms do.
They've got to keep you back down at this level.
-For sure.
I go back home, it's I've got to wash the dishes,
got to, you know, mow the lawn.
For real. This is a real thing.
And I think that's her way of like, "Hold on, now.
Don't have too much dip on your chip, now."
You know? So...
-"Don't have too much dip on your chip."
I love that.
This Friday, the new album is coming out.
Are you ready? Everybody excited for it?
-You know, I just reached that point to where true faith
is just having, you know, no fear in the unknown,
and that's where I'm at right now.
So I feel really good.
I say all that to say, I feel really good.
[ Cheers and applause ] Thank you.
-This is -- It comes out this Friday.
"From A Bird's Eye View" is the --
I love the album cover and the artwork, by the way.
Where did it -- [ Laughs ]
Where did it come from, the idea, "From A Bird's Eye View"?
What does it mean?
-It means to see things from outside of yourself.
You know, as human beings,
we tend to all have, like, main-character syndrome.
But -- Seriously, though. -Yeah.
-But it's to see things from a more zoomed-out lens.
You know, that's like me and you can in an argument on TV --
Hopefully not, right? --
But we can get in an argument here,
and I can leave here like, "Oh, man, you know, Jimmy --
he is kind of, like, not a nice guy,"
but to see things from a bird's-eye view, it's like,
"Oh, I can understand how I was wrong in this way."
So to see things from a wider lens,
a more broader perspective.
-Disagree, but, yeah, we all have different opinions.
Well, that's why we're here.
I mean, we're all different, right?
-Absolutely. -Yeah.
-One way or another.
-What are you performing for us tonight?
-I'm going to perform a medley --
"Sinister" and song that's not quite out yet, "Chronicles."
-That's what I'm talking about. -Come on.
-Cordae, "From A Bird's Eye View"
is available this Friday.
Cordae's performing for us after the break.
Come on back.