CyHi The Pryce's No Dope On Sundays album will be officially released next Friday, November 17th, but NPR Music has come through with an advance stream of the GOOD Music emcee's official debut. You can check that out by heading over to this page, where the album can be played in full, along with some track-by-track commentary from The Prynce himself. The album features Pusha T, ScHoolboy Q, 2 Chainz, Estelle, Jagged Edge, Kanye West, Ernestine Johnson, BJ The Chicago Kid, & Travis Scott, but the majority of the album's finest moments come from CyHi himself, who brings out high caliber lyricism on nearly every track.
While the album is still too fresh for me to fully dive into right now, the introductory cut "Amen" sounds like peak CyHi, with plenty of dense references, vivid storytelling, and impreccable flows. "Fuck being conservative, I was tryin' to serve it up, stir it up, rather sell a bird than be a burglarer, a third of us ridin' round tryin' to find a purchaser, with my lil Spanish chick used her as my interpreter," raps CyHi, about halfway through his non-stop lyrical monologue.
While the album is not exactly religious in the spiritual sense, musically, the vibe flirts with the divine. Production is grandiose, soulful, and hard hitting; consider "No Dope On Sundays," which opens with a revival-esque sermon and employs a gospel-inspired instrumental. The juxtaposition between the divine and the trap seems to be one of the dominant themes on the album, and CyHi himself breaks it down when speaking on the title track:
"Me combining both of my lifestyles — as far as the time that I did do in the streets and the time of my spiritual maturing and grooming by my parents — kind of gave me a third-eye view on a lot of topics and different situations. I can say I can go through some street s*** with Jesus in the room."
So, while it's too early to really dive into the album right now, my early experience with the project is certainly positive. Perhaps CyHi was onto something when he called himself the "best rapper alive." What do ya'll think?
