Here's 15 key Cordae quotes from his new Apple Music Zane Lowe Q&A

East Coast rapper Cordae has plenty to talk about with his new From a Birds Eye View studio album officially out to the masses today. The hip-hop star joins music personality Zane Lowe on New Music Daily on Apple Music 1 to dish on everything from his sophomore effort and rap star peers to sharing the new LP with some of the biggest names in entertainment ahead of its release.

With so many gems unleashed in the Q&A, we’ve put together 15 key quotes from the chop up session.

Cordae Tells Apple Music About His Mentality Going Into The Making of His Sophomore Album…

You know what, man, just trying to uphold myself to a standard of excellence. I hold myself to an extremely high standard of excellence and I try to put... I say it on a song, I'm my worst critic. There's nothing anybody can say to me that I'm not aware of or I haven't thought about. So I always just try to outdo myself with everything. And I'm not one to live in the past to think about the past. I like to be present and have infinite gratitude presently. But then, also look as a futurist and think about what can I do to take everything creatively, musically artistically to a whole nother level.

Cordae Tells Apple Music About Striving To Make a Cohesive Body of Work…

It's only 12 songs, man and two of those are interludes. And I just always want to make a cohesive body of work. That's my main thing. I just want to make a cohesive body of work that I can stand upon. And 20 years from now, 10 years from now and be proud of and be happy about. Like each of these bodies are works are my babies man, for real.

Cordae Tells Apple Music About His Good Friends and Collaborators Gunna and Lil Durk…

…everybody who's on this album like Gunna and Durk, both of those are like very good friends of mine. I don't use that word very lightly, especially, when speaking upon people that's within the entertainment space. So Gunna, we made that record when we was in Australia. We were both doing a festival run in Australia and we traveling together essentially, like back to back tours and whatever. Like he is just a really good guy, like straight up, just a stand up dude. He on push a pea. He pushing pea for real. Same with Lil Durk, man, he's been a supporter of mine since like three years ago. I'm the one that Lost Boy first dropped. He was like you a G.O.A.T young... Durk tweeted that. He said that publicly, that's not something he just told me in private, he tweeted that. Show love like that, man. That's something I don't take for granted. As a artist, we love getting... We make this music for the world to hear and for the fans and the consumers to hear and digest and love. But also, we want the admiration of our peers as well. And it's always been a mutual respect with both of those cats. You know, like with both of those guys, like both of those are like really good friends of mine, for real.

Cordae Tells Apple Music About Sending The Album To Chris Paul, Dave Chapelle, and Colin Kaepernick..

I sent it to CP3, to Chris Paul. I sent it to Dave Chappelle. I sent it to Colin Kaepernick. All of who are like very good friends of mine. Not really nervous, just more so just, they'll send me like some sneakers or something exclusive before it comes out, always. But so I just like to return the favor.

Cordae Tells Apple Music Most of His Style and Influence Comes From Nas…

…listen, I'm a Nas baby all day. Like most of my style and influence comes directly from Nas. I'll say that all day. Like my style, my cadences, like Nas directly influenced me, just straight up. Like there is no me without Nas.

Cordae Tells Apple Music About Eminem’s Influence On Him…

It was just a buzzer beater, you know. It was definitely some last minute alley hoops and buzzer beaters. So I appreciate bro for sending through that buzz beater. Eminem is again stylistically very early on. Any artists with coming to a lyricist approach with making music in hip hop, definitely has some sort of Eminem influence. It's like impossible not to it. It's impossible. Eminem man, definitely. You know, my first song that I came out with was the, My Name Is Remix. So that tells you all, I need to say about what I think of Eminem and how much his music has meant to me.

Cordae Tells Apple Music About Curating Who He Collabs With…

...every song that I make where I add another artist to, I just think about what color palette that they're going to add to the song. I think about what their vocal tone is like a paintbrush, if you would. What are they going to add to this? And I just like to curate dope, dope things.

Cordae Tells Apple Music About The Album Title ‘From a Bird’s Eye View’…

I'm giving you things that I've experienced, things that I've witnessed, things that I live and gone through, but from a bird's eye view. And also, it means to see things from a zoomed out lens. To see things from a more broadened perspective. Because as humans, again, we tend to always think like, it's about me, me, me, me, me and the world revolves around me. But sometime, we have to see things from a more zoomed out lens and take a step back and see what someone else's perspective. So it's like a multi perspective album, for sure.

Cordae Tells Apple Music About His Younger Brother Shiloh Kicking Off The Album…

You know, Shiloh, that's my younger brother. He's in prison right now. He got 25 years and I have him rapping on the intro because, we was coming up rapping together and he was more lit than I was. We were both coming up, like for real. He was popping more. So I feel like I'm kind of like a harvesting, a seed that he planted in a way. I felt as though it was only right that I had bro on the intro rapping on the album.

Cordae Tells Apple Music How Visiting Africa Influenced The Album…

You know, going to Ghana to Cape Coast, Slave Castle, the pointing no return. And that was real emotional things for me. It definitely motivated the music in some way. It was more so just the peace of mind and serenity to where I just needed a moment to myself, not doing anything music related. Nothing work related, just out there existing, honestly. And it was a restart and refresh button that I needed.

Cordae Tells Apple Music About Picking Samples and Production…

Man, sometimes I just go through a whole day myself picking out samples, and I'll chop them up and I'll give it to one of the homies that got... Because my drums that I have right now is like not good. I'm not the best with making drums and things of that nature. Because being a true leader is recognizing your strengths and your talents, and the strength and talents of others and coming together on a conglomerate effort. And so, I'm pretty good at picking sample choices and different sounds and sonics and things of that nature and placing them and knowing what exact drum pattern I want. But my drums, myself, are lacking a little bit. I got to perfect them. But I say that to say, I'm just really hands on in the production process, especially post production. That's where I spend most of the time honestly. Like the lyrics and the writing, that comes naturally. But just taking everything to a whole nother level from a production standpoint is where I have the most fun honestly. And I spend the most time.

Cordae Tells Apple Music About “Momma’s Hood”…

Momma's Hood, I wrote that song on the day after one of my best friends got killed from back home from Westlake. And we were really close in high school man, my boy Pitch. Shout out Joanna Ross. And when he got killed, man, I just started dealing with survivors guilt, like crazy. That inspired the song. And I felt guilty because I'm like, man, I could have saved him. I could have brought him on the road. Man, I could have found a way. I could have saved him. And I wrote that song in remembrance of my homie.

Cordae Tells Apple Music About “Chronicles” feat. H.E.R. and Lil Durk…

So I made this record at home. I have a home studio where I create a lot of music at. It was just this pure, raw motion and transmuting that into song form. That's essentially how every song on this album was made. But that one in particular, it just gave me a certain feeling when I heard it. When I finished that record, I was like, it just gives me a feeling, like it makes you feel something. And as soon as I made that record and I finished my part, I was like, okay. Because I always try to do the whole song by myself as far as like a second and third verse. But I'm like, nah, I was like, I'm going to put H.E.R and Durk on this.Literally, the day I made it, I was like, I'm going to put... I know it may be like a random combination, but I was like, no, I'm going to put H.E.R and Lil Durk on this because I know their vocal tones both bring a whole new element to this record and they could bring it out and make it way better. And I think they did exactly that.

Cordae Tells Apple Music About Making “Westlake High”…

So I wrote that I was off shrooms that day when we made that beat. And we were just in the studio vibing and I heard that my boy, Jaleel matter of fact sent me that sample because, I'm always collecting samples. He sent me that sample and I'm sitting down with Kid and we chopping it up and we are like on cloud nine, literally on the cloud. And we creating this joint and I'm like, I just want to make everybody feel like how I feel right now and this beat does that. Like we was just listening to that beat for hours and hours and just the sample, not even the beat, just the sample man. And that time went by like this and that's how great that sample felt. And I was like, yeah, I got to write something to this. And that's how that one came about.

Cordae Tells Apple Music About Prioritizing Gratitude…

You know, that's my word of this year so far, man is just gratitude. And I started off ending... I'm kind of going off the momentum from last year. I read this book called Atomic Habits and it basically sort of teaches you the art and science and the neurology about how our brain forms habits. And one habit that I wanted to get to was starting and ending my day with just gratitude, just thanking God. Because, I make music for a living man. I make music full time. It doesn't get too much sweeter than that. And I recognize I got a lot more work to do as a human being, as a artist creatively. A lot more growing to do, but also just presently, I know where I'm at right now man and I'm thankful for it.