Today on On The Radar we got to sit down with legendary NYC battle rapper Cortez. The rapper just dropped his new album “Resolutions” at the top of 2021. The album serves as his first project since 2017’s “The Exception”. Speaking with us the rapper spoke about the album, taking battle rapping global, his record with Method Man, and of course how you can get into battle rapping yourself as a fan!
When it came to dropping “Resolutions” Cortez explained that people had been asking him to drop music for years. While he had put out songs here and there along with a few videos the rapper was really preparing for this body of work that would allow him to cross over into a new space.
“Over the last ¾ years, I was teasing, dropping singles, seeing what people liked what they were responding to, what videos people liked. For the most part, people jacked my music period. But people were also saying when are we going to get a project, when are we officially going to get something to say Cortez crosses over and I feel like “Resolutions” is that. Where now people are respecting me in a different space.
Battle rapping in and of itself is a HUGE market and has millions of fans around the world. Sharing with us some of his experiences Cortez explained how it’s a blessing for him to travel around the world and participate in the sport he loves.
“Even international I’ve battled in 3 different continents, I’ve battled in Europe (London, Amsterdam etc), then you got America, Canada (same place), but then I always went to Australia and sold out for 2 weeks straight, you really sit there and be like it literally took me from the corner to all around the world. To me its reassuring to do what I love for a living is a BLESSING, when I go to these different places they really treat you like royalty”
Check out the full interview above!