Today, as promised, we rolled out the second part of our in-depth conversation with CyHi The Prynce. In the past, I would often refer to him as the "oft-forgotten" G.O.O.D. Music member, or the "underrated" rapper, however, with the release of his debut album No Dope on Sundays, I can only hope I will put those phrases to rest forever, ever. In part two of our interview with CyHi, the rapper steers toward Cruel Winter discussion (yup, still happening, apparently), as well as looking back briefly on the blog culture he first came up in, circa, 2007-2010.
CyHi provided an interesting perspective as to what ultimately shifted the culture to where it's arrived currently.
"The biggest shift, a lot of people don't know, is when Kanye went up against 50 Cent," CyHi said, referring to the 2007 album show-down between the two big artists, which would go on to make iconic Rolling Stone magazine cover. "That's the biggest shift in our culture. That let guys who didn't have a certain amount of dope sold, or a certain amount of street cred, to actually still make music, still make hip-hop, and it could be mainstream, it didn't have to be underground, or you'd have to have a certain taste level to have it, it was actually on the radio. That's when I feel like, around that time, the Lupes, and the new guys who could really spit got that chance -- even with Drake, if it wasn't for Kanye standing up to 50, would Drake music be able to work at that time, you know what I'm saying?"
Do you agree? Let us know what you think in the comments.
"When T-Pain did it," CyHi continued, referring to the onset of auto-tune usage, "it was still considered signing. But when Ye did it, when Ye and Wayne did it, it was like, 'oh, you can rap and use auto-tune?'" He added, "People don't even know which way to put it now, it's all hip-hop."
The idea of blurred lines and genres was a topic CyHi spoke on once more towards the end of this interview (jump to 9:35 mark). When asked about the youth's exploration and boundary-pushing hip-hop, CyHi cited rap as a such a young genre of music, that it is only inevitable that it would branch off further-- pulling the example from rock music, CyHi says of rap, "That it's [hip-hop] the most powerful genre of music now, you have to have those branches-- like you had soft rock, alternative rock, punk rock. So now, I just feel like, the new artists who do more bass-driven records, jump around on stage, wild look, hair, that's punk-rap, that's not rap, then you got street, gangsta rap, or I call gangsta rap, your Jeezys, your mainstream but still street, then you have alternative rap, where I feel like it's more me, Joey Bada$$, you know, Kendrick might be the biggest of that-- so you could still go mainstream," CyHi observes.
What's your take?
If you missed the first part of CyHi's interview, which dropped on Friday last week, you can catch it right below.