Childhood & Early Life
She was born Kodie Williams on October 28, 1998, in Atlanta, Georgia, US, to Danny C Williams and Hop. Her grandfather named her after the American scout, bison hunter, and showman William Frederick "Buffalo Bill" Cody.
Her family relocated to Chicago, Illinois, when she was a toddler. Her father was a member of the Detroit based male musical group ‘Rick, Ran & Dan.’ Her professional career is managed by her mother.
Other members of her family who are into music include her aunt Cherrelle, an R & B singer of ‘I did not want to put you’ fame; her sister Brandi, who remained a member of the American girl group ‘Blaque’ that charted in 1999–2004; and her elder brother Lil Wop, a rapper also known as ‘The Wopster.’ Her cousin ‘Famous Dex,’ also known as ‘Black Migo Dex,’ is a drill rapper.
Growing up with so many musical talents around, it was very natural for Kodie to develop passion for music. She resolved to take up music as a career when she was just 13 years old.
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Career
She commenced her career in the world of music and entertainment at the age of 14. Initially, she began working as a writer for the Matty P and D.Clax supervised Atlanta production studio, ‘Greystone Park.’ Matty P then showed to Coach K the music of Kodie. Coach K, who manages American rapper Gucci Mane and the hip hop group ‘Migos,’ and is considered an influential person in Atlanta, gradually became Kodie’s mentor.
She called herself ‘The Don,’ inspired by the 2013 American romantic comedy-drama film ‘Don Jon,’ However, as she could not adopt the name, she settled for Kodie Shane at the time of signing the deal with Epic Records, in 2015.
In early 2016, Coach K introduced her to American rapper and singer Lil Yachty. In no time, she developed a good bond with Lil Yachty, who eventually inducted her into his crew of ‘Sailing Team,’ It consists of a young and energetic team of rappers and producers, including K$upreme, BigBruthaChubba, Kay the Yacht, Jban$2Turnt, Byou, $oop, and TheGoodPerry (formerly Burberry Perry). Kodie is the only female member of the crew.
On March 9, 2016, she came up with her debut mixtape titled ‘2060.’ It consisted of 13 tracks and got her some initial recognition. One of its tracks titled ‘Sad,’ an emotional song that she wrote at 13 years of age, emerged as her first hit song.
‘Sad’ was produced by Matty P and D.Clax, and featured Lil Yachty. The song has garnered over 2.94 million plays and more than 50 K likes on the music and podcast streaming platform SoundCloud.
She released her first EP titled ‘Little Rocket’ on June 11, 2016. The EP consisted of five tracks namely ‘Can You Handle It,’ ‘I Want To,’ ‘Losing Service,’ ‘Catch A Flight’ and ‘Hands Up.’
She rose to prominence expanding her audience base and online streaming presence by contributing a verse to Lil Yachty's post cut , ‘All In,’ which also marked her formal introduction as a ‘Sailing Team’ member. The song that became part of the July 20, 2016, released second commercial mixtape of Lil Yachty titled ‘Summer Songs 2’ featured Kodie along with K$upreme, JBan$2Turnt, $oop, Kay the Yacht, TheGoodPerry, Big Brutha Chubba, and Byou.
In December 2016, she released the EP titled ‘Zero Gravity’ through Epic Records. The five tracks of the EP are ‘Drip on My Walk,’ ‘Sad,’ ‘Can You Handle It,’ ‘Losing Service,’ and ‘A OK.’ Apart from ‘Sad,’ ‘Drip on My Walk’ also became quite popular.
She produced the album ‘Big Trouble Little Jupiter’ in January 17, 2017, through GreystonePark / Young Heart Throb. This album consists of ten tracks, including ‘Like a Rockstar’ featuring Saucy Longwe, and ‘Be With or Without.’ The R&B styling of the album reflected the influence of American singer, songwriter, dancer, record producer and actress Ashanti, who is one of Kodie’s greatest influences,.
Moving on, she released her album ‘Back From the Future’ through Epic Records on August 25, 2017. The seven tracks of the album include songs like ‘Get Right,’ ‘Indecisive’ and ‘You Should Know.’
Some of the most popular songs of Kodie are ‘Start a Riot’ and ‘Hold Up.’ The latter features Yachty and American hip hop recording artist Lil Uzi Vert, and was listed by ‘Fact magazine’ in September 2016, as one of the ten Rap and R&B tracks to hear that month.
With time, Kodie has garnered considerable attention on YouTube. Her Official YouTube account ‘Kodie Shane’ has already amassed more than 146K subscribers, along with over 12 million views. Two of the most popular videos of the account are ‘Kodie Shane - Sad ft. Lil Yachty’ with over 8.2 million views and ‘Kodie Shane - Drip On My Walk’ with over 4.4 million views.
She has a decent presence in other social media platforms like Twitter, where her account ‘kodieshane’ has more than 53K followers, and on Instagram, where her account ‘kodieshane’ has over 455K followers.
