CyHi The Prynce may soon be hanging up his mic for good.
The former G.O.O.D. Music rapper announced on Wednesday (August 31) he’s contemplating retirement, telling his almost 140,000 Twitter followers, “Been thinking about retiring from rap.”
CyHi later went on Instagram Live and explained the reasoning behind his possible retirement, shedding light on his career struggles and label difficulties. “Should I retire from Rap? Part 1,” he captioned the almost hour-long video.
“I’ve been doing this shit my whole life damn near,” he began. “It’s been a rough journey as far as, like, being from Atlanta and having a different style, being different to what a label may want or a manager may want.
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“Still to this day, when I go to labels, the first thing they tell me is, ‘Get yourself hot in the streets.’ And I think the shit is disrespectful to tell me to get myself hot in the streets. I’m like, ‘Record labels, do y’all fucking understand what that entails?’
“They think you gon’ go home, you gon’ go meet a real estate agent or a muthafucking banker or investor and say, ‘Hey man, I’m a good kid! I need help getting my records and paying the DJs and paying for digital marketing and radio and videos and all this shit.’ They want you to do this shit yourself.”
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He added: “They don’t know how much shit n-ggas going through. Do you know why there are so many RICOs in the rap game? It ain’t the artists, bruh. It’s the record label. The record label deserves some of them RICOs as well ’cause [they] tell a young n-gga in poverty who grew up in the mud, ‘Hey man, you kinda sound good but if you go get yourself hot in the streets first, we’ll come back and give you $3 million.’
“So that means, ‘Oh ok, so you gonna give me $3 million if I knock a n-gga’s head off? You gonna give me $3 million if I rob a n-gga?’ That’s the only way you can get hot in the streets. They think, ‘Oh man, hot in the streets means you pull up a mixtape.’ No, Universal! No, Columbia! No, Def Jam! Warner, even EMPIRE. Getting hot in the streets mean go knock some shit off.”
CyHi The Prynce has become a prolific songwriter over the last decade, lending his pen to hits like Kanye West’s “Black Skinhead” and Travis Scott’s “SICKO MODE,” to name just a few. During the Instagram Live, he said he only became a songwriter because Akon’s brother Bu Thiam — who oversaw his Def Jam deal and also signed him to his BuVision label — impeded his solo career.
“I wrote because I could never sign with Kanye West, y’all,” he said. “I was always signed to Bu, and Bu would not let me sign to Kanye West. So I had to become a writer. I’m not a writer; the only reason I became a writer is because I had to make some kind of money or I was going back to the street. So Ye was like, ‘Hey man, until we figure this shit out, help me come rap.’
“So I wrote ‘Black Skinhead’ and another record. We end up getting a $1 million deal from Motorola and we got a half a million deal for Wolf of Wall Street. Bu comes out the blue and claims that he own my publishing! This n-gga comes and sends a cease and desist from Universal to take 50 percent of what I wrote!”
CyHi The Prynce Crowns Himself 'Best Rapper Alive' After Torching L.A. Leakers Freestyle
CyHi The Prynce’s latest project, the four-song EGOT the EP, arrived in June, featuring guest appearances from R&B crooner Jacquees and fellow Atlanta native Big Bank Black. The project was intended as a warm-up to his sophomore album The Story of EGOT, which was supposed to drop this summer.
“The God of rap is back,” he proclaimed in May while announcing the album. “I want to thank all my fans & supporters for their patience. I’ve endured a lot throughout my life and career, and due to the on-going encouragement I’ve received from everyone, I’ve decided to release my sophomore album ‘The Story Of EGOT’ this summer.”
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CyHi fans are no stranger to delays. The rapper’s debut LP No Dope On Sundays was released in 2017, almost a decade after his breakout appearance on Kanye West’s My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. The album boasted appearances from Kanye, Pusha T, ScHoolboy Q, Travis Scott, 2 Chainz and more.
