Kodak Black Drops Cathartic New Album 'When I Was Dead'

Multi-Platinum rapper Kodak Black drops When I Was Dead, a cathartic new album that reaffirms his status as one of the most incandescent artists of his generation.

Checking in at 18 tracks, When I Was Dead features all the bluntly honest raps and bluesy crooning that made Yak an icon. For “Lemme See,” he skitters over a minimalist beat for a visceral tour of his native Pompano Beach neighborhood.

On “Burning Rubber,” a track produced by Boi-1da (Drake, Rihanna, Kendrick Lamar) he threads matter-of-fact death threats, yacht party flexes, and trap logistics with succinct couplets and spurts of wispy singing. On the opening track “Kylie Grande” produced by Metro Boomin (Post Malone, Future), he taps into his softer side.

Meanwhile, on “2'CY,” Kodak drenches his vocals in distortive auto-tune, adding a twist of engrossing delirium to a celestial club beat. Experimental, yet grounded in his own tradition of poignant poems for the trenches, When I Was Dead is quintessential Kodak — an inimitable emblem of style that connects the past and present and future. 

When I Was Dead is the next step of a legacy he's cultivated out of jagged melodies, preternatural dexterity and deadly sincerity. With his inborn instincts for sound and immersive songwriting, he's become one of the most revered street poets of his era. 

When I Was Dead was preceded by the release of this past May's Pistolz & Pearlz, which included the hit “No Love For a Thug” and featured collaborations with rising hip-hop artists EST Gee, VVSNCE, GorditoFlo, Syko Bob, and more. Pistolz & Pearlz was accompanied by The Don, a 21-minute film starring Kodak Black as a gangster caught in the crossroads of reforming his ways. But the hustle doesn't end for the rapper. He recently launched his label, Vulture Love, in partnership with Capitol Records, which has already signed its first artist Lil Crix — another Floridian with dreams of rap domination.  

Kodak Black first broke big with 2014's “No Flockin,'” which began a run of hits including "Tunnel Vision," “ZEZE” — a collaboration with Offset and Travis Scott that has certified RIAA Platinum six times over — and 2022's "Super Gremlin," which peaked at number three on the Billboard Hot 100, racked up more than 350 million streams, and earned him a 2022 BET Hip Hop Awards nomination for Song of the Year. This past year Kodak Black became a GRAMMY award-winning-contributor for his feature on Kendrick Lamar's Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers.

Additionally, the rapper has amassed three top 10 albums including 2018's chart-topping Dying to Live and collaborated with rap's elite on songs with Kendrick Lamar, Travis Scott, Doechii, Moneybagg Yo, Gucci Mane, and many more. Kodak Black also contributed a verse to genre-blurring Fast X soundtrack highlight "Angel Pt. 1" alongside NLE Choppa, K-pop star Jimin, JVKE, and Muni Long.

To date, Kodak Black has garnered 22 million monthly listeners on Spotify and is approaching 25 billion global streams. Now, with When I Was Dead at his back, Kodak is poised to continue leveling up at a historic rate. 

Photo credit: Jared Pearson

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