{"id":8795,"date":"2026-11-08T20:43:56","date_gmt":"2026-11-09T01:43:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.surrealresolution.com\/?p=8795"},"modified":"2026-11-08T20:43:56","modified_gmt":"2026-11-09T01:43:56","slug":"album-review-anderson-paak-and-cordae-heavy-is-the-crown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.surrealresolution.com\/index.php\/2026\/11\/08\/album-review-anderson-paak-and-cordae-heavy-is-the-crown\/","title":{"rendered":"Album Review: Anderson. Paak and Cordae &#8211; HEAVY IS THE CROWN"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Welp, another Anderson. Paak album out and it\u2019s another collab album. This time, the artist du jour is\u2026 Cordae.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Yeah, I\u2019m not going to lie. I\u2019m not the biggest fan of Cordae &#8212; his rapping is fine, he seems like he got his head on his shoulders and yes, I know he was formerly of the YBN crew as YBN Cordae (but he dropped that part when they disbanded; he never seemed like that type of rapper). He clearly has a talent in the hip-hop game, but from the albums I&#8217;ve listened to from YBN\u2026 yeah, not the biggest fan. I don\u2019t hate them but they aren\u2019t that interesting to listen to from front to back. Maybe a couple of tracks stand out, but listening to albums like <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Lost Boy<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">From a Birds Eye View<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> didn\u2019t really get him into my rotation. He\u2019s in the category of rapper that has good bars but the execution is 50\/50, he can be good but he can also blend in the background if I\u2019m doing something.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Also, I forgot he had a third album released in 2024 with <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Crossroads<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. That\u2019s how little I cared for him as a rapper. Again, he seems cool but that\u2019s like for a track or two.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">However, in some of those albums (mainly the first and third one), he had some tracks collaborating with Anderson. Paak, and I remember liking them. Hell, the first single off this new album, \u201cA Good Day,\u201d shows that both of them have some good chemistry together on the mic alongside the marketing basically having that little brother\/big brother thing they\u2019re doing.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The album cover is very reminiscent of the movie <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Step Brothers <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">but I don\u2019t think Cordae would do something to Paak\u2019s drum set like Will Ferrell did in the movie, IYKYK. (Then again, he might.)<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" title=\"YouTube video player\" width=\"747\" height=\"421\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/IQJKL2NKj1A?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;fs=1&#038;hl=en-US&#038;autohide=2&#038;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" style=\"border:0;\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox\"><\/iframe><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Now, I\u2019m just going to get my thoughts on the album out, and I can safely say that while this is another Anderson .Paak album I\u2019m going to like, this is the first Cordae album I\u2019m loving a lot.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For one thing, this album is a lean eleven tracks at 32 minutes: short and sweet, no filler all killer, and this is strictly <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">their<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> show! Meaning there are no outside features, and this is a good thing. I\u2019m not against having features on albums, but this is the one of the few times where I\u2019m fine with just the main performers here and no one else.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Also, some of the content in here is pretty solid. The opening track \u201c58th Floor\u201d does have them rapping about Paak calling Cordae to tell him how he\u2019s trapped at this girl\u2019s house when her actual boyfriend is there (who just got on parole, BTW). It\u2019s pretty humorous, and it does carry that brotherly chemistry those two got going for themselves. Tthe beat is nice, too, and that\u2019s courtesy of J. Cole. Hey, he did something I like this year!<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><a class=\"ReferentFragment-desktop__ClickTarget-sc-d6a74c8e-0 jYcUsM\" href=\"https:\/\/genius.com\/42037652\/Anderson-paak-and-cordae-58th-floor\/In-the-closet-with-the-dirty-clothes-nigga-aye-fool-you-trapped-in-the-closet-like-robert\" data-ignore-on-click-outside=\"true\"><span class=\"ReferentFragment-desktop__Highlight-sc-d6a74c8e-1 XbhFO\">Aye, fool, you trapped in the closet like Robert<\/span><\/a><br \/>\n<a class=\"ReferentFragment-desktop__ClickTarget-sc-d6a74c8e-0 jYcUsM\" href=\"https:\/\/genius.com\/42090338\/Anderson-paak-and-cordae-58th-floor\/I-thought-we-stopped-fuckin-with-bitches-with-baby-fathers\" data-ignore-on-click-outside=\"true\"><span class=\"ReferentFragment-desktop__Highlight-sc-d6a74c8e-1 XbhFO\">I thought we stopped fuckin&#8217; with bitches with baby fathers<\/span><\/a><br \/>\nI can pull up, that ain&#8217;t a probl\u0435m, but, shit, it&#8217;ll take an hour<br \/>\n<i>Shh, man, I&#8217;m stallin&#8217;, I hear &#8217;em takin&#8217; a show\u0435r<\/i><br \/>\nAight, listen, show them we ain&#8217;t no bitches (<i>Right?<\/i>)<br \/>\nIf I was you, I&#8217;d go out there and fight all them niggas (<i>Cap<\/i>)<br \/>\nGo right in the kitchen and grab the pot with the hot grits<br \/>\n<i>I told you these niggas big as fuck, that ain&#8217;t gon stop shit<br \/>\nPlus, his goons in the living room watching Netflix<br \/>\nOut the window is looking like my best exit<\/i><br \/>\n<a class=\"ReferentFragment-desktop__ClickTarget-sc-d6a74c8e-0 jYcUsM\" href=\"https:\/\/genius.com\/42065229\/Anderson-paak-and-cordae-58th-floor\/But-dont-she-live-on-the-58th-floor-whoah\" data-ignore-on-click-outside=\"true\"><span class=\"ReferentFragment-desktop__Highlight-sc-d6a74c8e-1 XbhFO\">But don&#8217;t she live on the 58th floor? (<i>Whoah!<\/i>)<\/span><\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The whole album is fully a hip-hop album, and I do mean HIP-HOP! I say that since Paak has been doing more of his R&amp;B\/soul type for the past couple of albums\/collabs, and on here both he and Cordae are rapping on this. One joint called \u201cYou\u2019re Mine\u201d is basically another version of \u201cI Used to Love H.E.R.\u201d by Common, as in the girl they\u2019re in love with is mostly personified as hip-hop and how she\u2019s treated, like how some say that she wouldn\u2019t stick around for long or how some people are treating her wrong.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" title=\"YouTube video player\" width=\"747\" height=\"421\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/noZ1eqaWqQs?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;fs=1&#038;hl=en-US&#038;autohide=2&#038;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" style=\"border:0;\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox\"><\/iframe><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There are some songs that go deep into their lives growing up, but also just stuff in their daily life. \u201cDays Go By\u201d has Cordae\u2019s verse about how his uncle used to sell dimes at his grandmother\u2019s house and referencing a local star athlete at a car-jacking &#8212; the car-jacker being his brother (yeah, things weren\u2019t looking too bright). In Paak&#8217;s verse, he was the silent and sensitive one, mostly saying his mother would threaten him if he talked back and was teased\/wet the bed, thus trying to act tough probably in order to toughen himself up for harsher stuff out there. Yeah, I can relate to what Paak\u2019s younger self was going through and see the harshness in Cordae\u2019s verse as well. And hey, speaking of family, Soul Rasheed (Paak\u2019s son) produced this track here and like his father, he&#8217;s got a knack for music. \u201cCrown\u201d is another great showcase of bars from the two along with some excellent production from Conductor WIlliams.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Most of the album has been doing a lot of victory laps and showcasing braggadocious swag throughout with some real talk in there, but I feel like this cuts deep once we go into \u201cHelpless\u201d, and the verses go like this: the first verse is Cordae, dealing with the stress of raising his daughter in separate homes, since he <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">was<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> with four-time Grand Slam tennis champion Naomi Osaka (they have since split up). Granted, they don\u2019t have bad blood but, you know, having a family can change a lot of things. Paak\u2019s verse&#8230; well, most of you have heard <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Why Lawd? <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">by NxWorries, right? Well, this is an extension of that with a verse where Paak shows up drunk at his kid\u2019s birthday party, along with all the unresolved emotional conflict coming out at the party and how he sacrificed a lot but he can\u2019t even get a slice of birthday cake.<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>I&#8217;m finna have my second child, <a class=\"ReferentFragment-desktop__ClickTarget-sc-d6a74c8e-0 jYcUsM\" href=\"https:\/\/genius.com\/42092874\/Anderson-paak-and-cordae-helpless\/Although-we-still-aint-said-our-vows-was-never-my-intention-to-raise-my-daughter-in-separate-homes-gave-your-mom-my-all-but-the-love-she-had-for-me-dead-and-gone\" data-ignore-on-click-outside=\"true\"><span class=\"ReferentFragment-desktop__Highlight-sc-d6a74c8e-1 XbhFO\">although we still ain&#8217;t said our vows<br \/>\nWas never my intention to raise my daughter in separate homes<br \/>\nGav\u0435 your mom my all, but the love she had for m\u0435 dead and gone<\/span><\/a><br \/>\nAlthough you ain&#8217;t a man if you can&#8217;t admit it when you was wrong<br \/>\n<a class=\"ReferentFragment-desktop__ClickTarget-sc-d6a74c8e-0 jYcUsM\" href=\"https:\/\/genius.com\/42054780\/Anderson-paak-and-cordae-helpless\/Cant-see-it-comin-down-my-eyes-so-do-it-through-this-song\" data-ignore-on-click-outside=\"true\"><span class=\"ReferentFragment-desktop__Highlight-sc-d6a74c8e-1 XbhFO\">Can&#8217;t see it comin&#8217; down my eyes, so do it through this song<\/span><\/a><br \/>\nNever would&#8217;ve thought as a kid that my life is this<br \/>\nTen thousand square foot crib emptier than a bitch<br \/>\n<a class=\"ReferentFragment-desktop__ClickTarget-sc-d6a74c8e-0 jYcUsM\" href=\"https:\/\/genius.com\/42092926\/Anderson-paak-and-cordae-helpless\/We-made-it-through-this-internet-matrix-though-im-the-glitch\" data-ignore-on-click-outside=\"true\"><span class=\"ReferentFragment-desktop__Highlight-sc-d6a74c8e-1 XbhFO\">We made it through this internet matrix, though I&#8217;m the glitch<\/span><\/a><br \/>\nAnd lil&#8217; bro did the dash, but they caught his ass with the switch<br \/>\nIt seem like yesterday we would fight in my grandma yard<br \/>\nPlayin&#8217; 33 basketball, ain&#8217;t have shit, but we had it all<br \/>\n<a class=\"ReferentFragment-desktop__ClickTarget-sc-d6a74c8e-0 jYcUsM\" href=\"https:\/\/genius.com\/42092972\/Anderson-paak-and-cordae-helpless\/And-here-i-am-a-grown-ass-man-chasin-nostalgia-years-flyin-by-in-a-flash\" data-ignore-on-click-outside=\"true\"><span class=\"ReferentFragment-desktop__Highlight-sc-d6a74c8e-1 XbhFO\">And here I am, a grown-ass man chasin&#8217; nostalgia<br \/>\nYears flyin&#8217; by in a flash,<\/span><\/a> times is wilder, but<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cKarma Tax\u201d does have something in here most folk can relate to: either making sure people owe you whenever they tend to borrow a lot of your money and draining you of both that and your energy or, while having a win, you noticed a loss in your life and tend to either drink the pain away. The album does end on a good note as it goes back to flexing with \u201cGodfather II\u201d: bragging on their skills as rappers, going from being broke to doing luxurious things and talking about them as a duo, as they say they\u2019re like <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201c<\/span><\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/genius.com\/42062006\/Anderson-paak-and-cordae-godfather-ii\/Jay-z-and-ye-like-raekwon-and-face\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">J\u00c4Y-Z and Ye, like Raekwon and Face,<\/span><\/i><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/genius.com\/42052253\/Anderson-paak-and-cordae-godfather-ii\/Like-shaq-and-the-mamba\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">like Shaq and The Mamba<\/span><\/i><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Yeah, let\u2019s hope one of you doesn\u2019t end up being one of those guys in those duos\u2026 although Raekwon and Ghostface are doing fine.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In short, is this album anything special? Not really, but it is a good showcase of what these two do as a duo. While I already like Anderson. Paak as an artist\/rapper\/producer and expected him to be good at this, I&#8217;m very pleased with Cordae here, and while I wasn\u2019t a big fan of him when he first came out he does spit some good bars on here and I wasn&#8217;t that bored by him. The two have great chemistry and if I see them do another collab, I welcome it. I\u2019m sure we&#8217;re more likely to hear these two collab again than Silk Sonic and hopefully, the next time it happens, Cordae doesn\u2019t have his former record label trying to sue him. <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.billboard.com\/pro\/cordae-25-million-lawsuit-anderson-paak-collab-album\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">No, really. That happened.<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n\n<p><span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" title=\"YouTube video player\" width=\"747\" height=\"421\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/3gQcYrPXR4U?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;fs=1&#038;hl=en-US&#038;autohide=2&#038;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" style=\"border:0;\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox\"><\/iframe><\/span><\/p>\n<p><b><i>FINAL VERDICT: Stream it first then buy it. <\/i><\/b><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">That crown is heavy and it holds its own weight.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p><b><i>HEAVY IS THE CROWN<\/i><\/b><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> is on APESH-T, Empire, Hi-Level, and Mass Appeal and is available on CD, cassette, vinyl, digital download and on streaming services.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Welp, another Anderson. Paak album out and it\u2019s another collab album. This time, the artist du jour is\u2026 Cordae. Yeah, I\u2019m not going \n<a class=\"moretag\" href=\"https:\/\/www.surrealresolution.com\/index.php\/2026\/11\/08\/album-review-anderson-paak-and-cordae-heavy-is-the-crown\/\"> [...]<\/a>","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":8796,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"no","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","yasr_overall_rating":3.6,"yasr_post_is_review":"yes","yasr_auto_insert_disabled":"","yasr_review_type":"MusicRecording","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_hide_featured_image":false,"_jetpack_featured_image_duplicate_dismissed":0,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[12],"tags":[1066,631,1241,1821,1194,1819,1000,1820,1822,503,1798,295],"class_list":["post-8795","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-music","tag-album","tag-album-review","tag-anderson-paak","tag-apeshit","tag-collaboration","tag-cordae","tag-empire-distribution","tag-heavy-is-the-crown","tag-hi-level","tag-hip-hop","tag-mass-appeal","tag-rap"],"yasr_visitor_votes":{"stars_attributes":{"read_only":false,"span_bottom":false},"number_of_votes":0,"sum_votes":0},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8GYHU-2hR","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.surrealresolution.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/https___images.genius.com_3bfa4cb16fef8c4935c6e80c65ecb5ab.1000x1000x1.png?fit=788%2C788&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.surrealresolution.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8795","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.surrealresolution.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.surrealresolution.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.surrealresolution.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.surrealresolution.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8795"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.surrealresolution.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8795\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8810,"href":"https:\/\/www.surrealresolution.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8795\/revisions\/8810"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.surrealresolution.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8796"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.surrealresolution.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8795"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.surrealresolution.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8795"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.surrealresolution.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8795"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}