Pusha-T & YBN Cordae Endured Real-Life Nightmares To Reach Rap Dreams (Video)

YBN Cordae is having a stellar campaign in 2019. This summer, the man born Cordae Amari Dunston dropped his debut album The Lost Boy, a project many Hip-Hop Heads consider among the best releases of 2019. The record hosted a slew of talent as well, including appearances from Meek Mill, Anderson .Paak, Chance The Rapper, and Ty Dolla $ign. Videos for the Paak-assisted track, “RNP,” and the single, “Bad Idea,” with Chancellor Bennett, further solidifies Cordae’s recent ascension by proving his keen abilities in storytelling both visually, as well on wax.

Yet another prominent guest appearance from Cordae’s The Lost Boy came from none other than O.G. lyricist, Pusha-T. Their collaboration, “Nightmares Are Real,” recalls the rappers’ first breaks in the game, and highlights the real-life obstacles that attempted to block their path. While Cordae’s breakthrough is occurring on a different timeline than King Push’s, it is their personal accounts of struggle that unite them as tales of their comeuppance continue onward. In conjunction with the rappers’ Lost Boy collab’, Cordae and King Push have now released a visual accompaniment to prove that “Nightmares Are Real” in 3-D.

YBN Cordae’s Powerful Video Shows How The World Can Treat You When You’re Broke

As the rappers’ stories unfold, it’s clear that their rise as respected MCs had differing launch points. To open, Cordae reveals the path he walked down on his way to Rap relevance. In the staircase of a haunted house, The Young Boss Ni**as MC spits, “Okay, uh, I can tell you how I first started in this Rap s**t / Mama kicked a ni**a out the house, felt fantastic / Told my homies, ‘If you got a couch, know I’m crashin” / Worried ’bout my future, couldn’t care about the past tense / Lost my grandmother, and I haven’t been the same since / Start to get anxious, I’m tired of this lame sh*t / Tired of the struggle, livin’ family in the subdivision / Ramen noodles, drawin’ doodles wasn’t in my f*ckin’ vision / But whose fault is that? Tryna stay all intact / Fightin’ all my demons, they be schemin’, but I’m crawlin’ back / And eventually flyin’, lately been mentally cryin’ / Ni**as resentin’ me, I am not for the industry lyin.‘”

To follow, Push puts his past to paper and brings it to life with tales of his days before things got G.O.O.D. Pusha Terrar raps, “I can tell you how I first started in this rap sh*t / 8th grade, backflippin’ on the mattress / Ninth grade, pack doin’ gymnastics / 10th grade, summersaultin’ all them crack flips / Asterisk, skipped school, recorded with The Neptunes / We was makin’ high school classics / Before I took a kilo, and I wrapped it, I rapped it / Around the funeral with the casket / Coke avalanche, like a landslide / Only grew my hair this long because my man died / Collect calls on them landlines, I pressed 5 / To tell about the new test drive and talk fly.” He appears beside Cordae in the well-produced visual.

Pusha-T & Lauryn Hill Show What Hip-Hop Sounds Like If They Rule The World

#BonusBeat: YBN Cordae announced a 2020 headlining tour: