Before Kodak Black would drop massive songs like “Tunnel Vision,” “Calling My Spirit”
“No Flockin” and “Zeze” collaborating with Offset and Travis Scott
Before Kodak would work with artists like Lil Pump, Juice WRLD, XXXTentacion, Bun B,
Future, French Montana, Young Thug, Gucci Mane, Lil Wayne and many more.
Before he would have close to 8 million followers on Instagram, over 2.5 million on Twitter
and over 5 million subscribers on YouTube at the time of this recording.
In his 2017 documentary on Worldstar, Kodak said
“I don’t rap, I illustrate.
Everything I say, you see it vividly.”
The last few years have been something like a rollercoaster for Kodak Black.
His highs have included a number one album, massive commercial solo success and being
a part of huge songs as a feature.
While his lows have included troubles with the law that seem to be never ending.
But before all of the fame and all of the turmoil, Kodak was just a project baby born
in Pompano Beach, Broward County, Florida.
He grew up in some of the toughest circumstances in America, but his ability to observe and
document his surroundings in a brutally honest way over instrumentals, gave him a way out.
But before he saw true success, he almost lost all hope as he was facing a potential
life sentence.
It was at this moment that fate stepped in...
What’s going on guys?
It’s your boy Michael McCrudden documenting the life and career of Kodak Black prior to
fame here for you on an updated version.
Now the last time we took a stab at this was like 3 years ago, and this channel's come a long way
When things start looking crusty we hit you guys with an update like we've done
recently with ASAP Rocky and Future
This video was brought to you by our good friends over at Kandy Pens.
You guys gotta let us know who's next in the comments down below. Here we go...
a city located in Broward County.
His parents immigrated from Haiti to the states a few years prior to Kodak’s birth.
Unfortunately, Kodak grew up not knowing his father and was raised by his single mother
in the Golden Acres public housing project in Pompano Beach, which is part of an area
that has the largest population of Haitians in the US. Now you know.
Pompano was described by a state official in the 1970’s as “unsalvageable” and
him at all times.
But that life became a daily reality, and in order to make sure he wasn’t pushed around,
he learned to fight from an early age, always getting into scraps.
He was even expelled for fighting in the 5th grade.
But just because he was tough, doesn’t mean he wasn’t incredibly smart.
Kodak competed in spelling bees when he was in elementary school and would occasionally
out-spell high school students.. because.. uh..well, I don't know.. he had the, he knew what he was doing!
Kodak was always looking for ways to expand his vocabulary and that's why he would
always spent his free time reading a thesaurus.
While attending C. Robert Markham Elementary school, he started rapping with some of his
cousins.
He lists Lil Boosie as an early inspiration and related to his story of struggle
and triumph.
Apparently Kodak would battle kids in his neighborhood for money, and just like in spelling
competitions, win battles against some older guys.
Although his friends also rapped, most of them were too shy to perform at school talent
shows, but Kodak always had the confidence to get up on stage.
At 12, he rapped his verses to some of the older guys in his neighborhood, and they were
impressed.
They invited a young Kodak to their home studio to start recording.
But their studio wasn’t just a microphone and a computer, it also doubled as a trap
house and it was there that Kodak was first introduced to hustling.
Kodak wasn’t interested in anything street related though, he would go to the trap house
every day after school just so he could record music.
Hanging out with older kids isolated Kodak from his peers and he stopped hanging out
At first, Kodak says he was rapping about things that he wasn’t actually living.
But after spending enough time in the trap house, his new friends’ influence rubbed
off on him and he began hustling for some extra money.
Eventually he became a part of the local rap group called the Brutal Youngnz using a few
different rap names, one of them being J-Black.
When he joined Instagram, he added Kodak onto his name, because like he said to Pigeons
and Planes:
‘cause you know Kodak, that’s pictures and all that.
Before Instagram and before Facebook and all that other sh*t I was just Black, or Lil’
Black, and sh*t like that.
But yeah Instagram came out and I was like man, I’m gonna be Kodak Black.
If you read that back or listen to that again, it doesn't make.. I get what he's saying.
His friend and collaborator Polo pooh suggested he keep it as his rap moniker. So it stuck.
In an interview with the Sun Sentinel, Kodak’s mom stated
“As a young boy, he was obsessed with music.
Not listening to other people’s music as much as writing his own.
When I think in my mind, music is his life.
That’s all he likes.
That’s all he wants.”
Around that time, he went to the dentist and used his hustling money to replace all of
his teeth with his now signature gold ones.
Years later got them removed due to gum disease and put in a diamond grill instead.
Kodak told Fader that if rap didn’t work out, he would take out his grills and either
become a boxer or pick up a trade like Brick masonry or become a commercial driver
and get a license to drive big rigs. But I got a feeling he'd still be hustlin', you know?
But before making rap a real career, he was hustling as a means of survival.
He said his mom barely made enough to pay the bills and didn’t have any left over
for Kodak.
So he started to make his own money to spend on clothes, shoes, and just getting something
to eat.
But living that lifestyle quickly caught up with him, and in middle school he was caught
for stealing cars.
Kodak was sent to Juvie 3 times.
It was in the summer of 2013 that he got caught with a serious charge that was punishable
by a potential life sentence.
At the same time, his music was also starting to develop into something special as he released
covers onto YouTube under the name J Black, including a cover of Wale’s Ambition.
Kodak rapped with an understanding about life like few others his age were able to do.
Luckily, that talent was recognized by the right person at the exact right time.
Enter AC Julien, who is the CEO of Dollaz N’ Dealz entertainment.
He heard Kodak’s music and believed in him so much that he was willing to invest in some
big-time lawyers to represent the case.
The lawyers were able to reduce Kodak’s sentence to 3 years’ probation.
Instead of a life sentence, Kodak Black was given a new life one filled with a lot of
ups and a lot of cops. Now I'm gonna talk about all that in a second, but for now..
It looks like it's getting a little smokey in here. Also my hair changes colour.
Upon his release, he signed with Dollaz N Dealz and in December of that year launched
his mixtape “project baby,” Kodak’s music had a huge buzz locally and he was playing
packed out performances around Florida.
He continued to work towards his high school diploma at Blanche Ely High School, and there
are even videos of him performing at the school’s homecoming.
While posting music videos to YouTube and dropping more music.
Then his music video for ‘No Flockin’ went viral.
The song even got played on Miami radio.
The video now has over 172 million views.
In October 2015 Kodak was pulled over by cops on suspected robbery and possession, but he
later got out on bail.
from signing him to a deal.
Later that October, Drake posted a video on his Instagram dancing to Kodak while flying
on a private plane, which gave Kodak a boost in viewership. Everyone was like "If Drake
likes it I'm in"
But while career wise, Kodak couldn’t have been bigger, he was a XXL Freshman, he dropped
a debut album that was well received both commercially and criticaly, his troubles with
the law continued, and over the course of the next couple years he was in and out of
court and back and forth from jail.
But he also experienced a lot of growth.
While in jail, after being taught by a Hebrew minister, he reportedly became a Hebrew Israelite,
eventually legally changing his name change to Bill K. Kapri.
Kodak earned his GED in jail, where he also carried around a dictionary, and just like
he did as a kid, a thesaurus, so that he could continue expand his vocabulary.
But this time, the stakes were higher because Kodak had a child on the outside that he wanted
to get home to as soon as possible.
In 2017, Cardi B released Bodak Yellow, which was a nod to Kodak’s flow on the song No
Flockin.
It was the song that started a huge wave for Cardi and she admitted that Kodak was a huge
inspiration for the song.
Although there was some back and forth about it, eventually Kodak hopped on the official
remix for the song and I’m sure he received some royalties off of the song’s success.
Now more recently, Kodak Black's been out of hail but he does have some looming charges from a fan.
who believes or alleges that he raped her after one of his concerts.
So I guess we'll have to wait and see what happens with that.
he is acting like a new man, he's cut his hair, he moved from Florida to LA,
and he seems pretty level headed in all his interviews.
He's also had more success than ever, having a number one album that included the single ZeZe which
is now certified platinum.
But his legal battles are not completely over just yet. We’re hoping that Kodak’s fresh
As for the future, he wants to get married one day and chill in a nice crib with his
kids while he stays out of trouble.
But as for the rest of the story, well we're gonna wrap this one up here because this is before they were famous!
My name's Michael McCrudden we make all sorts of celebrity bio's here for you on this channel
If you liked this one, check out some of our other recent updates. Probably some of your favourite rappers we've done.