Cyhi the Prynce built a reputation as a raw and capable lyricist even before he linked up with Kanye West and signed to G.O.O.D. Music, dropping mixtapes every year since 2010. This year, however, has been relatively quiet for the Atlanta spitter, but his influence is being felt all across the world as fans begin to digest Kanye’s boundary-pushing Yeezus.
“The biggest thing about Yeezus was just being there creatively,” Cyhi told MTV News of his contributions to the LP, on which he receives writing credit for nine of the 10 tracks. “Send It Up” is the only track where he doesn’t receive a credit.
“I’m just in there with him, keeping him up, keeping the environment in the room. That’s like one of my jobs I feel like, because they ask me to do it,” he said.
Cyhi said he has been a part of other Yeezy projects like My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, Watch the Throne with Jay-Z and, of course, last year’s Cruel Summer compilation, where he rapped on two tracks.
While Cyhi lends a hand in crafting the rhymes, he stops way short of labeling himself as a ghost writer. It isn’t that Kanye needs anyone to write his lyrics, but ‘Ye likes to keep capable critics around him to help him edit his words, making sure that each verse is perfect. “We wrote a booklet of different things that could be put in here. The bible just wasn’t wrote by Jesus. Inspirations came from everywhere that put this whole thing together,” he explained.
In a recent New York Times interview, Kanye compared himself to Steve Jobs; Cyhi draws the same parallel. “One person wasn’t in there making the iPhone; it was the whole company,” he said comparing Yeezus to the revolutionary smartphone. “He likes to run everything like Apple.”
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