CyHi The Prynce Compares Career To Macklemore, Big Sean

G.O.O.D. Music emcee CyHi The Prynce compared his artistic rise to Big Sean and Macklemore’s in an exclusive conversation with HipHopDX. Following his performance during the Coast 2 Coast Convention in Miami, Florida (September 1), the Stone Mountain, Georgia native said that despite his relatively low profile since first joining Kanye West’s record label in 2010, he’s only on year three of a five-year plan.

“If you look at what [Big] Sean’s career did, it took him two years, but he’d been doing it for five years,” said CyHi The Prynce. “He went on tour with Wiz [Khalifa], Wale. That was five years ago. People don’t see it like that, but when he put out “My Last,” that was the fifth year of him being signed to G.O.O.D. Music.”

CyHi emphasized that building an organic fan base by performing in intimate venues is more important than chasing radio at this point in his career. “It’s like Macklemore,” he said, describing the Seattle, Washington rapper’s path to national recognition.

“People are like, ‘Oh, Macklemore come out of nowhere,’” he continued. “But he’s been doing those 400-500 [person] venues for three or four years. Now he can put out some bullshit and you can’t deny it because his fan base is gonna eat it up because he’s touched those people directly. That’s all I’m trying to do and I take pride in that.”

The “So Appalled” lyricist explained that the approach taken by artists like Big Sean and Macklemore is now part of the industry’s “formula.” He said “when you’ve got a great show and you’ve got great music, you don’t let the label dictate it. You put it out yourself and let it grow and let that fan base build and the label comes and do what they do. That’s like a baby daddy or some shit. He don’t never wanna come during the week. He wanna come when it’s birthday time and then buy toys and shit. Nigga, we needed that shit all month. [Laughs] You can keep those muthafuckin’ Jordans.”

CyHi The Prynce Details Creation Of Cruel Summer’s “The Morning”

Along with his notable “Royal Flush” and “Ivy League” mixtape series, CyHi appeared on the song “The Morning” from G.O.O.D. Music’s compilation album, Cruel Summer. The song also featured Raekwon, Pusha T, Common, 2 Chainz, Kid Cudi, D’banj and Kanye West. While !llmind produced the version that appears on the album, CyHi revealed that the track went through a last minute producer change.

“[!llmind’s] was not originally on that beat,” he told DX exclusively. “That beat came in two days before we had to finish the album. We all had our verses. The song we originally had was cool. But then everybody started rapping their verses to the !llmind beat and then we decided to put it on there.”

While he wasn’t able to remember who produced the initial beat for “The Morning” because “there was so much muthafuckin’ music coming at that time,” CyHi confirmed that Kanye West added additional changes to the beat originally submitted by !llmind. “It didn’t sound like that,” he said. “It came like that, but the first four bars were the last four bars and the last four bars were the first four bars. So [Kanye] kind of flipped it and made it into some cool shit. I think !llmind might’ve added a little more to it, too.”

CyHi The Prynce concluded his performance during the Coast 2 Coast Convention with his verse from “The Morning.”

Coast 2 Coast began releasing mixtapes in 2006. Since then, the organization has released over 230 volumes, many hosted by major industry artists such as 50 Cent, Lupe Fiasco, Snoop Dogg, Fabolous, Wiz Khalifa. According to Coast2CoastMixtapes.com, the mixtape series has generated over “200 million downloads, plays and impressions.” Along with the independent artists convention and mixtape series, Coast 2 Coast also offers a digital magazine, a DJ Coalition, and video and single promotion services.

“Coast2Coast, thank y’all a lot for supporting real Hip Hop, real artists, up and coming artists,” CyHi The Prynce said. “We appreciate everything you’ve done for us this year and we’re gonna keep it moving.” 

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