''The Lost Boy'' is the debut
studio album by American rapper
Cordae (then known as YBN Cordae). The album was released on July 26, 2019, by
Atlantic Records and Art@War, and contains features from
Chance the Rapper,
Anderson .Paak,
Ty Dolla Sign
Tyrone William Griffin Jr. (born April 13, 1982), known professionally as Ty Dolla Sign (stylized as Ty Dolla $ign or Ty$), is an American singer, songwriter and record producer. He first gained major recognition in 2010 for his feature on Ameri ...
,
Pusha T
Terrence LeVarr Thornton (born May 13, 1977), better known by his stage name Pusha T, is an American rapper, songwriter and record executive. He rose to prominence as one-half of the hip hop duo Clipse, which was mainly active from 1994 to 201 ...
, Arin Ray, and
Meek Mill
Robert Rihmeek Williams (born May 6, 1987), known professionally as Meek Mill, is an American rapper. Born and raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, he embarked on his music career as a battle rapper, and later formed a short-lived rap group, ...
. The album has received widespread acclaim from music critics. The album was later nominated for
Best Rap Album
The Grammy Award for Best Rap Album is an award presented to recording artists for quality albums with rapping at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards. Honors in several categories ...
at the
2020 Grammy Awards
The 62nd Annual Grammy Awards ceremony was held on January 26, 2020, at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. It recognized the best recordings, compositions, and artists of the eligibility year, running from October 1, 2018, to August 31, 2019. Ali ...
, while the album track "Bad Idea" was nominated a Grammy Award for
Best Rap Song
The Grammy Award for Best Rap Song is an honor presented at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards, to recording artists for quality songs in the rap music genre. Honors in several c ...
.
''The Lost Boy'' was supported by three singles, "
Have Mercy", "
Bad Idea", and "
RNP".
Release and promotion
The album's lead single, "Have Mercy", was released on March 8, 2019.
Two music videos for "Have Mercy" were released on April 16, 2019, with the first one being directed by Cole Bennett and the other being directed by Aplus. The single was produced by Flippa, Kid Culture, and Nils.
The album's second single, "Bad Idea", was released on June 17, 2019, along with an accompanied music video and features vocals from American rapper
Chance the Rapper.
The single was produced by Bongo ByTheWay with co-production by Kid Culture.
The album's third single, "RNP", was released on July 23, 2019, and features vocals from American singer
Anderson .Paak.
The single was produced by
J. Cole. The music video was released on October 14.
The music video for "Broke As Fuck", was released on August 15, 2019.
Critical reception
''The Lost Boy'' received widespread acclaim from critics. At
Metacritic
Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...
, which assigns a
normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, the album received an
average
In ordinary language, an average is a single number taken as representative of a list of numbers, usually the sum of the numbers divided by how many numbers are in the list (the arithmetic mean). For example, the average of the numbers 2, 3, 4, 7 ...
score of 81, based on five reviews.
Fred Thomas of
AllMusic
AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databa ...
said, "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 like "We Gon Make It," it points to even more fully formed work ahead from a strong talent just getting started."
Nicolas Tyrell of ''
Clash'' stated "Both bold and filled with bravado, yet layered and emotional, YBN Cordae is able to convey his desires, hopes, and fears in an ambitious and well-thought out format. A strong debut from an artist who knows that he is capable of long-term success."
Jacob Carey of ''
Exclaim!'' said, "If The Lost Boy was the new wave rapper's most substantial test of talent and longevity, YBN Cordae passed with flying colours."
Scott Glaysher of ''
HipHopDX
''HipHopDX'' is an online magazine of hip hop music criticism and news. The website's current president and publisher is Sharath Cherian and the Head Of Content is Jerry L. Barrow. ''HipHopDX'' is the flagship publication of Cheri Media Group.
...
'' stated "Encapsulates everything a Gen Z rapper should be aiming for; young gun energy mixed with traditional skill."
Will Schube of ''
Pitchfork
A pitchfork (also a hay fork) is an agricultural tool with a long handle and two to five tines used to lift and pitch or throw loose material, such as hay, straw, manure, or leaves.
The term is also applied colloquially, but inaccurately, to ...
'' said, "Despite the glossy guestlist, 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."
Tom Hull ranked it 52nd on his list of the best non-jazz albums from 2019.
Commercial performance
''The Lost Boy'' debuted at number 13 on the
''Billboard'' 200, with 25.000 copies moved in its first week for the chart dated August 10, 2019. The album also debuted on the
Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums
Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums is a music chart published weekly by '' Billboard'' magazine that ranks R&B and hip hop albums based on sales in the United States and is compiled by Nielsen SoundScan. The chart debuted as Hot R&B LPs in the issue dated ...
chart at number eight.
Track listing
Credits adapted from
Tidal
Tidal is the adjectival form of tide.
Tidal may also refer to:
* ''Tidal'' (album), a 1996 album by Fiona Apple
* Tidal (king), a king involved in the Battle of the Vale of Siddim
* TidalCycles, a live coding environment for music
* Tidal (servic ...
.
Notes
* signifies a co-producer
* "Wintertime" features vocals by
Quincy Jones
Quincy Delight Jones Jr. (born March 14, 1933) is an American record producer, musician, songwriter, composer, arranger, and film and television producer. His career spans 70 years in the entertainment industry with a record of 80 Grammy Award n ...
and additional vocals by
PJ
* "Sweet Lawd (Skit)" and "Grandma's House (Skit)" features additional vocals by Arin Ray,
Masego and
SiR
''Sir'' is a formal honorific address in English for men, derived from Sire in the High Middle Ages. Both are derived from the old French "Sieur" (Lord), brought to England by the French-speaking Normans, and which now exist in French only as ...
* "Bad Idea" features additional vocals by
Ant Clemons
Anthony Clemons Jr. (born September 26, 1991) is an American singer. He rose to prominence as a guest artist on Kanye West's 2018 single " All Mine". Clemons has since worked with a multitude of artists, including West, Ty Dolla Sign, Beyoncé, ...
and SiR
* "Thanksgiving" features background vocals by SiR
* "Broke As Fuck" features background vocals by Jehreeus Banks
* "Thousand Words" features background vocals by
Syd
* "Been Around" features background vocals by Hasani and vocals by Quincy Jones
* "Family Matters" features additional vocals by ThePpl
Personnel
Credits adapted from
Tidal
Tidal is the adjectival form of tide.
Tidal may also refer to:
* ''Tidal'' (album), a 1996 album by Fiona Apple
* Tidal (king), a king involved in the Battle of the Vale of Siddim
* TidalCycles, a live coding environment for music
* Tidal (servic ...
.
Instrumentation
* Aliandro Prawl – keyboards
* Amanda Bailey – strings
* Tarron Crayton – bass
* Kid Culture – programming
* Karim "Kace" Hutton – bass
* Justin Zim – bass
* Freaky Rob – guitar
* illuid.haller – piano
*
G Koop – guitar
* Raymond Komba – piano
Technical
* Brendan "Bren" Ferry – recording
* Pedro Calloni – recording
* Juro "Mez" Davis – recording
* Take a Daytrip – recording
* Cyrus "NOIS" Taghipour – mixing
* Derek "MixedByAli" Ali – mixing
* Aria "Angel" Ali – mixing
* Dave Kutch – mastering
* Zachary Acosta – engineering assistant , mixing
* Curtis "Sircut" Bye – engineering assistant
Charts
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lost Boy, The
2019 debut albums
Cordae albums
Atlantic Records albums
Albums produced by Terrace Martin
Albums produced by J. Cole
Albums produced by Take a Daytrip
Albums produced by Cardiak
Neo soul albums