Cordae Amari Dunston (born August 26, 1997) known mononymously as Cordae (formerly YBN Cordae and Entendre), is an American rapper, singer, and songwriter. He gained popularity by releasing remixes of popular songs, such as "My Name Is" by Eminem, and "Old Niggas", which was a response to the song "1985" by J. Cole. Videos to both remixes were uploaded to WorldStarHipHop's YouTube channel, which led to an immense and immediate positive response from both mainstream media and the online rap community.
His debut studio album, The Lost Boy, was released in 2019 to wide acclaim; it received two nominations for Best Rap Album and Best Rap Song for the single "Bad Idea" at the 62nd Grammy Awards. Cordae was a member of the YBN collective from 2018 until he left the group in 2020 and dropped the "YBN" from his stage name.
Cordae was born in North Carolina, then moved to Prince George's County, Maryland. As a young child, he took an interest in music after his father played classic hip hop artists such as Rakim, Nas, Big L, and Talib Kweli. He began writing raps around the age of fifteen. As he got older, he would do research on artists through YouTube, attempting to find music like his father played. As Dunston grew older, he became more interested in pursuing a rap career. He prioritized his studies, but often became distracted by writing lyrics. He released three mixtapes as a teenager: "Entendre" – Anxiety (2014), I'm So Anxious (2016), and I'm So Anonymous (2017). He graduated from high school in 2015 and decided to go to college at Towson University. He dropped out in 2018, explaining that college was "bigger than him" as a first-generation student, and he was mainly doing it for his mother. He moved to Los Angeles shortly afterward.

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