It’s been a long time coming for Cyhi The Prynce. Since signing to Kanye West’s G.O.O.D. Music in 2010 Cyhi has been has been one of West’s go-to collaborators, scoring GRAMMY nominations along the way. However, after dropping a handful of mixtapes over the years, the most popular question he’s ever been asked has been “where’s your album?”
Cyhi answered that long-gestating question with during a sit-down with NPR (who was given the green light to premiere a stream of the album a week in advance), in which he some stories and the inspiration behind each song.
After you go through all of the trials and tribulations of this album, or in life, it kind of brings you closer to God. Some of my partners were all tough growing up, but as soon as one of them got a gunshot wound the first somebody they’d call is God. Before my partner got shot, he never went to church with me. But then I took him to church three days after he got shot and he says to this day it’s one of the best things that happened to him, because he understood he had a purpose. He had a couple of kids coming and he was like, ‘My life could have been gone like that!’ You never think, at 15, that you’ll get shot. So that’s a song about just becoming yourself, becoming a man and having a certain spiritual side about you that you should have throughout your life to make you a better person.”
With features from West (“Dat Side“), Travis Scott (“I’m Fine“), ScHoolboy Q (“Movin’ Around“), Pusha T, 2 Chainz, BJ the Chicago Kid, Jagged Edge and others, the album can be heard at NPR right now with an official release at midnight on all streaming platforms.
