The first time that I heard CyHi The Prynce, I was driving
around with the radio on. The local college radio was playing ‘The Morning’
from the Cruel Summer album G.O.O.D.
Music put out a while ago. At first, I wasn’t really paying attention to the
song at first, and then CyHi’s verse came on, and it was great. His race card
line was hilarious to me, and one of the first things I did when I got back to
my computer was look up what that song was and whose verse just floored me.
CyHi The Prynce is a very frustrating performer to me, because for every verse
on ‘The Morning’ he has, he has about two garbage songs that rap about the same
stale subjects. I’ve listened to his previous mixtapes, and they all are hit
and miss, with some really good material and a great flow hidden between the
same clichés. Then
I saw that his new mixtape was coming out.
Black Hystori Project
looked different. It looked dark; I thought maybe CyHi would surprise me with a
solid mixtape before he dropped his debut album. But, unfortunately, I found
this to be a pretty uneven album. I feel like CyHi The Prynce is having an identity
crisis; he either wants to be a conscious rapper, or he wants to do retreads of
the same money cash hoes anthems. Some songs on this mixtape are great; ‘Bury
White’ for example is a great song painting a portrait of the effects of crack
cocaine on the inner city. It does it in such a clever and deceptive way; at
first everything seems fine and life is good, and then the façade starts to
peel away and reveal the ugly truth. I also liked the song ‘Cydel Young’, in
which he raps about his past in the marijuana trade, though the egomaniacal
chorus was a bit much. I think the ego is some of the problem. His executive
producer and boss Kanye West is definitely rubbing off. Kanye at one time did
write some decent lyrics: ‘All Falls Down’ comes to mind. However, he is now
so in love with himself and resorts only to brag raps about money, blatant
product whoring, and mysogynism. I feel like CyHi might be going down this road
a bit. His verse on ‘Guitar Melody’ sounded like something Big Sean (the genius
who brought us a song whose entire chorus is one long repetition of the word ‘ass’)
might rap about, and his ego reaches epic proportions on ‘Mandela’, where he
compares himself to the late pioneer for South African freedom from Apartheid. Who
does that?
He also has a ton of mixed messages in his music. If he ‘does
this for Basquiat’ and does not care about money, fame, or radio play, why in
the next song is he bragging about money and fame as if they are the only
things in the world? And the song ‘Black Pride’, which by the title, I assumed
would be a song in the conscious vein like ‘Bury White’, was anything but. Also, that screaming on ‘Huey’ got old really fast.
I really hope he can turn his act around. I really think that CyHi The Prynce
has potential; he has a pretty good flow that can change rhythm on a dime, and
is a master of polysyllabic rhyme scheme. Some of his verse sound like tongue
twisters with the amount of alliteration dripping off of them. But,
unfortunately, the material he chooses to rap about has been done to death, and
is not all that interesting. I believe if he went down the conscious rap
direction like ‘Bury White’ and ‘Cydel Young’, he could make a great album. We’ll
see what happens.
Out of a total of 5 stars, I give this:
Check in later in the week for my opinions on Kid Cudi's Satellite Flight: The Journey To Mother Moon.
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