Naomi Osaka announces her breakup with rapper Cordae
Maryland emcee Cordae is an underappreciated young lyricist in hip-hop. Although the ‘Bad Idea’ rhymer is relatively young he has had a rollercoaster of a career since his breakout in the 2010s. Additionally, his personal life has been in the public eye due to his relationship with tennis star Naomi Osaka, which has now ended.
The rapper rose to fame as a teenager in 2018. After reaching out to YBN Nahmir on social media, Cordae frequently socialised with the YBN crew in Los Angeles and eventually, alongside YBN Almighty Jay, was drafted into the collective in 2019.
Cordae first broke out after releasing his single, ‘Introduction To The World’, a remix of the 1999 song, ‘My Name Is” ‘by Eminem. He also covered songs, including Kendrick Lamar’s ‘Duckworth’ and Method Man and Redman’s ‘Da Rockwilder.’
Still, although he has fallen back in recent years and has not seen the charts for a long time, he often appears in the news due to his relationship with tennis player Naomi Osaka. However, they have now officially split, and Osaka addressed their relationship on social media very publicly.
Taking to Instagram, Osaka told her followers, “Hi everyone, just wanted to say that Cordae and I are no longer in a relationship. No bad blood at all. He’s a great person and an awesome dad.” She continued, “Honestly really glad our paths crossed because my daughter is my biggest blessing, and I was able to grow a lot from our experiences together [heart emoji].”
The pair began dating in 2019 and welcomed their daughter Shai in 2023. Rumours of a split were surrounding Cordae and Osaka in 2022, but Osaka took to X (formerly Twitter) to refute the claims, writing, “People really just believe anything and run with whatever lol.”
One breakup Cordae previously experienced in his career was the disbandment of the YBN collective, which he became a part of in 2019, and he recently opened up about what led to their demise.
The YBN collective started off with just Nahmir and Jay in 2014, with Cordae joining a few years later. After gaining popularity and dropping their sole project, YBN: The Mixtape, in 2018, the group disbanded permanently. Speaking about the split with YouTuber Peaks100, Cordae blamed it on poor business and a terrible argument they couldn’t recover from.
Speaking with Peaks100, Cordae began, “Name one group that stayed together”, adding, “I mean bro, we never recorded a song with all three of us. The business side of it was kind of like, super fucked up, honestly. N*ggas got into a big argument in Europe. People say certain things they can’t take back – it’s still love, but it’s just some shit that you just can’t take.”
Although they split, he says he still has love for YBN Nahmir and Jay, stating, “Nahmir, that’s still my homie. Jay, I still fuck with bruh. Nahmir threw n*ggas that [alley] oop so I’m very grateful.”