It's November 14, 2026, 09:38:10 AM
Heavy Is the Crown Anderson .Paak/Cordae Genre: Pop/R&B / Rap Label: Apeshit, Inc. / EMPIRE / Mass Appeal Release Date: 2026By Dylan GreenReviewed October 29, 2026Anderson .Paak and Cordae kick back over a suite of boom-bap and trap-adjacent slappers on their lopsided but entertaining collaborative album.Anderson .Paak is the cool kid who sits comfortably at any musical table. He can play drums with punk bands or a church choir; hit raspy croons on hooks for Dr. Dre and Freddie Gibbs; serenade your girl, your auntie, and your grandma. It takes a certain charisma to top the charts with Bruno Mars and still satisfy the underground (while bringing home a Grammy) as half of NxWorries, his duo with producer Knxwledge, which remains his most seamless and rewarding collaborative project to date. With his latest, Heavy Is the Crown, he finds a kindred spirit in Maryland-via-North Carolina rapper Cordae. A former member of the now-disbanded collective YBN, Cordae's like an NBA 2K player character with solid technical stats who can't close the deal on three-pointers or dunks; he's eager but consistently has the energy of a younger sibling trying to impress. That hasn't changed much on Heavy Is the Crown, especially since Cordae spends a chunk of this otherwise fleet and playful album lagging behind his sparring partner.That's unfortunate, considering they've got joints stretching back close to a decade. The blueprint they're aiming for is clear: brothers in rhyme cutting loose, looking for love in the backseats of pink Lamborghinis over a suite of boom-bap and trap-adjacent slappers from production icons past (9th Wonder on "You're Mine") and present (Virginia's Hollywood Cole on three songs). But acts like this work best when there's a discernable back-and-forth—think Starlito's deadpan baritone next to Don Trip's sandpaper yawp, or Method Man's sultry bruiser clearing the way for Redman's scrappy smart-ass routine. Vocally, the biggest difference between .Paak and Cordae is that .Paak also sings. As spitters, they're essentially two versions of the same young OG sifting through C-notes, parental duties, and regrets on their way to the red carpet, except one has far more experience and range than the other.The discrepancy sticks out whenever they both talk about love. On the Bill Withers- and Ice Cube-interpolating lead single "A Good Day," .Paak rattles off Three 6 Mafia and Backstreet Boys references and Cape Cod yacht trips before listing the different nationalities of his flings. It would be standard stuff on his solo albums, and the Hollywood Cole beat is a textbook example of functional but spiritually empty nostalgia bait, but it plays like Drake's "Janice STFU" compared to Cordae, who's aiming for charismatic nonchalance but comes up flavorless. The song's funniest and most awkward moment, when Cordae asks .Paak if he can borrow a condom, only lands because .Paak nails the punchline: "We ain't the same size!".Paak also has plenty of groaners and generic lines throughout Crown—would-be anthems "Airbender," "I'm On," and "Days Like This" might as well be NBA League Pass background noise—but his exuberant personality shines through even his harshest whiffs, coating them with enough molten cheese to warrant an "Aw, shucks!" He knows when to mug for the camera and when to hang tight in the pocket, and his showmanship carries him through the few instances where he doesn't. While Cordae's love for rap history is apparent and he can ride a beat, he has yet to fully build those performance muscles to the point where he can sell low humor ("You trapped in the closet like Robert," "Got the same lawyers as Puff, but I beat the case") or genuine clunkers like "Got so much soul, must be my soulmate" or the preposterous "Spanish bitch, put my dick in her empanada."A handful of tag-team showings display their errant potential. Over the handsome trot of a J. Cole beat, opening track "58th Floor" plays out as a phone call between Cordae, who's at home playing dollhouse with his daughter, and .Paak, who's being walked down by the Samoan baby father of his latest situationship. Here, their Craig and Dae Dae dynamic works its magic in a rare moment where Cordae meets .Paak's bravado and writing. They're also evenly matched on Crown's handful of sobering story-driven cuts. On "Helpless," both men examine their roles in disintegrating relationships: Cordae as the young father condemning his daughter with tennis star Naomi Osaka to a life of being chauffeured between her estranged parents' houses, .Paak as the neglectful father and husband showing up drunk to his son's birthday before getting in touch with a therapist. "Days Go By" turns childhood car trips into vehicles for the duo to recall memories long since passed on the road to success. These tracks suit Cordae better—his flows and wordplay are more focused and impactful and, ironically, he sounds more at ease.Melancholic scene-setting is important, but it doesn't make the best party music. Heavy Is the Crown resembles a mainstream rap sampler of sorts, and its default settings are the kickback and the car stereo. As a shit-talker and lovable Svengali type, .Paak wipes the floor with Cordae without ever leaving first gear, the Buddy Love to his partner's Sherman Klump. If you're into the idea of two affable yet frequently chauvinistic MCs riffing over serviceable beats from traditionalists like J. Cole, Conductor Williams, and Swizz Beatz, there are worse ways to spend 30 minutes. But go into Heavy Is the Crown understanding whose head it's ultimately sitting on.Pitchfork score6.0Fan Score6.0https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/anderson-paak-cordae-heavy-is-the-crown/
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