Haven't done an album review in a while but back with one here from an MC from Georgia called CyHi The Prynce. I had no idea what to expect from this at all, I've only ever heard CyHi rapping on the Royce da 5'9 track Black Savage, and he is really good on that. Outside of that one feature I had no pre-conceptions.
Where to start with No Dope On Sundays. I have quite a lot to say, so I think I'll generally just go through some of the tracks and then point out some of my favourite parts of his lyricism, he's a proper lyricist, I can say that for sure.
No Dope On Sundays was a great introduction to CyHi's music. He expresses so much; his opinions, what he knows, what he doesn't know, and just his general attitude. In my review of The Allegory by Royce da 5'9 I mentioned how listening to that album was like a learning experience. Royce was teaching the listener things. No Dope On Sundays isn't as blatant or explicit like that, but there are various points through the record where CyHi comes across as a wise, experienced man who's got a lot to say, and much to teach.
On Get Yo Money CyHi is rather blatantly telling people who are currently in the street to "Get yo money and get out the game". His advice appears as though it is as coming from first hand experience, so in that case, he is more than appropriate to be giving this advice. Almost like he is speaking as an older-head to younger men from his area that are in a similar position to one he was once in. In the opening track Amen he lists out ways you should be respectful and live your life properly to fully prosper. The way he adlibs the numbers reminds me much of The Ten Crack Commandments by Biggie Smalls. Nu Afrika also has some big ideas that are great, but likely unrealistic, but regardless, CyHi shows himself as someone with large ambition and is still a dreamer, despite his hardened life. I don't want to spoil what he says in the song but if you check it out then you'll see what I mean.
Also, on the track Don't Know Why there is a section where he is explaining different slang terms, "I'm from where your zone is a zipper, your tone is your trigger, when your wife is your bitch, and your homies your ni**as". That bit always reminds me of the track Ebonics (Criminal Slang) by Big L (highly recommend).
So as well as displaying knowledge and wisdom in this album, CyHi displays a myriad of impressive flows. A standout one for me is on Get Yo Money at the start of verse 2 where he says "Yeah, Godfathers, top shotters, block robbers, outsiders, box riders, God got us, dodge chargers, mob daughters, trap houses, fly swatters, dough stoppers, got choppers". I love it when rappers can rhyme by just naming different things, different nouns or whatever and make it rhyme, I think it flows kind of choppy but sounds so hard. This flow is exactly like one of Eminem's flow on the track ShadyXV where he says "cotton dockers, OshKoshes, drop crotches, swatch watches". Yeah I just love that flow in pretty much any context.
This is just one example of a fire flow on this album - you would lose count if you tried counting how many different ones he has on this record. A very inventive MC to say the least.
On the track Movin' Around' featuring Schoolboy Q, this was the first track on the tracklist that proved CyHi was much more than just pure bars. The melodic hook was catchy immediately and both CyHi and Schoolboy were spitting fire on this track. My favourite bar from the track was, "You don't know how it feels when your cousin a blood, and you can't call him cousin cos bousin' a g". The way he sets that up was fire.
That entire leg of the album from Movin' Around down to Don't Know Why was just incredible and really makes this album for me.
CyHi's wordplay for me is probably his strongest asset in regards to his lyricism. Every single listen I would catch a new bar and I'm pretty sure I still haven't caught them all yet. There was so many lyrical highlights, too many to mention, it is what makes this album so interesting. It's not an album with just good production and a solid rapper, it's literally every song he will either write loads of different flows, lace his bars with loads of worldplay or alter his delivery to enhance what he's seeing. It's a proper entertaining album. But back to the wordplay specifically, one of my favourite bars was "my homies were crippin' so hard, all they eat is seafood", once again from the track Get Yo Money, that track has a lot going for it, and come to think of it, there's a few clever rhymes on that track.
I mentioned CyHi's ability to switch up his deliveries to make his verses more engaging, and he does this throughout. My favourite part for this was on the track Trick Me. In his chorus and at the start of the first verse, CyHi pronounces his words with an inflection that allows his voice to break, it sounds good, hits the beat really well, and like I said, adds so much to the song in making it exciting and different. What's great about this song is, 2 Chainz features and absolutely kills it. He adopts a choppy flow and also delivers his bars whilst ever so slightly letting his voice break and it sounds class, great addition to the tracklist.
Murda was a fun track, heavily sampling Damian Marley Welcome to Jamrock. That broke up the album well. I really enjoyed how CyHi played his verse off the sample and showed how "Murda" could be placed in his bars in various contexts. Top bit of lyricism.
Dat Side had my favourite beat on the project. A chilling, bass heavy trap beat where CyHi flowed like a demon with bars like "hah, assault rifle with the peephole, it go A-B-A-B-B-B Mortal Combat cheat-code". Fire that, just ridiculous. Kanye sounded kind of odd at the start of his verse, but he did sound pretty epic, I liked the way he managed to maintain his multi-syllable rhyme scheme with these bars, "people claim they praying on you, really they be preying on you, all this shit is weighing on you, don't look back they gaining on you, ye look down they aiming for you, all this shit is draining on you, and the people claim to know you, put 'em on get famous on you, then they go and blame it on you". Kanye is pretty underrated when it comes to rhyme schemes and flows in my opinion, I think it's because he doesn't always hold himself to the highest of standards for either so people don't realise how fire he actually is when he does spit with high-calibre.
Multi-syllable rhyme schemes are another area of lyricism where CyHi excels throughout. This is displayed at the start of verse 2 of the title track No Dope On Sundays, "I been in the streets, since 16, ya dig? How many zips in a elbow is 16, ya dig? Ni**as seem to forget how much clean I done hid, remember sneaking in the club with the thing-a-ma-jig, my OG pulled up on the scene in a wig, when you running from the feds, you can't be seen by the pigs, y'all don't know all the things I seen and I did, being in the dope game was never my dream as a kid"
I wasn't a huge fan of a leg of the album near to the end, Nu Africa, Free and 80's Baby. I appreciated what he was saying and the message in all of them, but yeah I could leave them from the album. I either didn't like the instrumental (Nu Africa), or thought the songs were boring, which was the case for Free and 80's Baby. Perhaps slightly slower but neither songs had flows that were particularly ambitious or creative.
Thankfully, I loved the last 2 songs, Closer and I'm Fine featuring Travis Scott. The lyrics for the hook on I'm Fine were slightly cheesy, but after the enjoyable album I'd just heard for the previous hour or so, it's something that is easily forgivable.
Overall, No Dope On Sundays had a lot going for it, and I am glad it was recommended to me. Rhyme schemes, wordplay, delivery are CyHi's strong points, which is a good thing because as a rapper they are 3 massive areas to be good in. Really impressed and I might get the CD too. Only a few skippable tracks towards the end but that's normal, some great tunes that I'll likely be revisiting very often.
Star Track - Movin' Around
8/10
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