Rapper 4200Kory, 24, has always embraced where he’s from. As a matter of fact, his stage name is directly tied to the Indianapolis neighborhood where he was born and raised.
“I’m a product of the Far Eastside,” the rapper said. He grew up on the 4200 block of Indianapolis, at 42nd Street and Post Road. “I tend to wear that on my sleeve and just about everywhere else on my body for the world to see.”
Born Chauncey Kory Graham, 4200Kory is the oldest of seven children. He has released several projects in recent years, but his debut full-length, “Cobra Son,” comes out Wednesday, Aug. 20.
From homelessness to healing through rap
In “Cobra Son,” Graham reflects on coming of age and how trauma has made him into the man he is today.
“I’m always going to try to be a thought provoker when it comes to my music,” Graham said. “I was brought up to believe that all my scars are what make me who I am. Not in the sense that it makes me any weaker, but these are battle scars.”
As a child, Graham wasn’t fond of rap music. He said the often-materialistic subject matter made him feel left out because he didn’t have any of the things rappers sang about. “I always thought a lot of it was corny,” he said.
When Graham was 11, his father died. He realized he could use rap as an outlet for sharing his story.
“My stories ventured from just writing about how I felt or what was going on day-to-day, to eventually rhyming. It felt pretty natural to me,” Graham said.
His friends heard him and immediately supported his talent. “They were like, ‘Yo. You’re actually kind of good. You might as well get after it.’”
Growing up with what Graham described as abject circumstances — his family experienced homelessness when he was 10 — he found that he had plenty of material to continue reflecting through his music.
In 2021, at age 20, 4200Kory released his first project, “Rest Easy,” reflecting on the loss he’d witnessed in his life.
About his cousin’s death to gun violence, he wrote: “I think about Cap before he died and how he tried to pave a way.”
“Guns didn’t play a real big role in our lives until we turned 14 and 15. People were out getting them,” he said.
“When I graduated, I was able to have a lot more sensibility around the things that I think we oftentimes belittle when we talk about guns and gun violence.”
The project was also an ode to the city.
“Naptown USA is one of the greatest places on Earth”
In the following years, 4200Kory released shorter projects, including the 2023’s “4 Naptown 2 Da World.” To promote his music, he traveled through the country to cities like Chicago, New Orleans, St. Louis and Louisville.
It was during this time away from Indianapolis that Graham was able to see his life and home through an outsider’s perspective.
He finally felt in the right headspace to work on “Cobra Son.”
“I want people to understand that the city of Naptown USA is one of the greatest places on Earth, and I stand all 10 toes on that,” he said. “There’s no other place in the world like the 317. There’s no other Far East. There’s no other Long’s Bakery.
“There’s no other canal that’s like our canal. When people listen to this record, I want them to understand that whatever they thought of Indy, this is another representation of it.”
You can see 4200Kory perform as part of the Slum Baby Family collective at Chreece hip-hop festival on Saturday, Aug. 23.
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Seth Johnson is a Mirror Indy freelance contributor. You can reach him at seth.johnson4291@gmail.com.
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