Interview: Cyhi Da Prynce (12/16/10)

Download: Royal Flush (Mixtape)

Cyhi Da Prynce first studdered his way onto HHAL towards the end of last year, and shortly after had his career jump started by a co-sign from Kanye West.  Kanye’s blessing came in response to Cyhi’s impressive verse on the remix to Yelawolf’s “I Wish.”

Now Cyhi is one of the most exciting emerging artists in the game and you can even find his name alongside the list of guest features on Kanye’s latest album!

Cyhi Da Prynce stopped by HipHopAtLunch’s offices to discuss select tracks from his Royal Flush mixtape, his experience working with Decatur Dan on the visuals to “Living Wonderful,” the first time he met Kanye West, sneaking his way onto the My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy album, and to give us an idea of what to expect from his upcoming mixtape, The Allies.

Based off of his lyrics, I assumed that Cyhi Da Prynce preferred to drink wine.  Having said that, it was cool to hear him say that all “he does is wine, like he was a year old,” ha!  If you haven’t been watching Cyhi’s impressive radio freestyles that we touched on at the beginning of the interview, I suggest you catch up!

Here are the tracks from the Royal Flush mixtape that we discussed in the above video:

Cyhi Da Prynce – “Ring Bellz“

The sample from Martin Luther King Jr’s “I Have A Dream” definitely grabs your attention at the beginning of this mixtape.  Here’s a quick excerpt from Cyhi’s epic intro:

“Talking about real life shit like the Maury show,
Notebook full of pictures that’s my portfolio,
Everytime I quote a flow,
I’m talking to your spirit, fuck around and catch the Holy Ghost,
The rap Frederick Douglass,
I’m my own publicist,
Just wrote a book trynna find someone to publish it,
Black Panther, speaking out in public,
Who never cut a brick bubbled it and doubled it,
No feelings for a women I’m the wrong one to cuddle with,
Only show love to the peoples that I struggle with,
I’m doin well but my flows is the sickest,
Plus my name ring bellz like it’s Christmas.”

Cyhi Da Prynce – “Bunch Of Rounds”

One of the fan favorites off of Royal Flush sees Cyhi telling a vivid story about getting revenge for being robbed.  ”Bunch Of Rounds” has a Decatur Dan-directed video, featuring Alley Boy, on the way!

Cyhi Da Prynce – “Living Wonderful”

J.U.S.T.I.C.E. League (Rook, Colionejl, & Kenny Barto) killed the production on “Living Wonderful,” and one of the opening lines has me laughing out loud at every listen, “can’t get no dunk on you, if he feeding you lunchables!”

Like Cyhi mentioned in the interview, him and Decatur Dan go way back – all the way back to Cyhi’s first video.  Here’s what Dan had to say about directing the “Living Wonderful” video:

There is always an interesting story behind every music video I shoot. About 8 hours before he wants me to board a plane, I get a call from Cyhi’s manager Mike telling me he wants to fly me to Miami to shoot a video with Prynce. After we came together on some simple terms, I was off to brainstorming ideas. After Mike told me the set up down there, my picks where between ‘Living Wonderful’ and ‘Can’t Wait’. When I arrived I met with Prynce and we locked in for Living Wonderful. You could call this video a documentary style, being that this all really happened, very natural, nothing was staged, I just told a story of Prynce living a wonderful life. Almost like Big Pimpin’, if I would have thought about it, that is the video I would have referenced. Anyways, thanks to my boy Craig Sprecher who put his touches on the color grade. Press Play.

Oh here is a fun fact, the first video I ever shot was exactly a year ago, with guess who? Cyhi, funny how shit works out.

Cyhi Da Prynce – “Hero”

“Hero” has a dedication to OutKast worked into the entire song, and also features some of Cyhi’s best lines off of the mixtape.  One of my personal favorites being, “On top of not graduating, I’m on top of The Appalachians/  In the helicopter, on the phone with my travel agent.”

Here’s an excerpt from the first verse:

“As I take the top of the Moscato off,
Now I’m yellin mazeltov,
Cause I feel like I’m the shit, yaganoff…
All my hoes above par, I play a lot of golf,
Turn the green into cream, tartar sauce,
Sorry ya’ll if you think I’m fake, hardy har,
I know rappers who say they in the hood but they hardly are,
We aint in the same class, how can I copy ya’ll?
I’m so hip hop my DJ should be Marley Marl.”

Cyhi Da Prynce – “So Appalled”

Here’s the verse that Cyhi snuck onto Kanye’s album, ha!

“Huh? I am so outrageous,
I wear my pride on my sleeve like a bracelet,
If God had an ipod I’d be on his playlist,
My phrases amazes the faces and places the favorite,
My cup over runneth with hundreds,
Dummy, damn its hard not for me to waste it,
The new commandment thou shall not hate kid,
My movement is like the civil rights, I’m Ralph David,
Abernathy, so call my lady Rosa Parks,
I am nothing like them niggas baby, those are marks,
I met this girl on Valentine’s Day,
Fucked her in May,
She found out about April so she choose to March,
Damn another broken heart,
I keep bitches by the twos nigga Noah’s Ark,
I got a seven on me, I call my dro Lamar,
Plus a Trojan in my pocket, Matt Leinart,
G-A-T in the path finder,
Cause you haters got PHD’s,
Ya’ll just some major haters and some math minors,
Tiger Woods, don’t make me grab iron.”

If you like what you heard on Royal Flush, you should definitely be keeping an eye out for The Allies! The features alone are quite impressive: Yelawolf, J.Cole, B.o.B., Big Sean, Big K.R.I.T., Pill, Alley Boy, Donnis, Kanye West, Pusha T, Bobby Creekwater, and St. Nick.  Shout out to Treesound studios, Groove Chambers, and Mali for helping to put the project together!

Thoughts on Cyhi Da Prynce?