Hystori

For Black History Month, elementary school student Chance Whitfield does a project on rapper Cydel Young, aka CyHi the Prynce. That's how Black Hystori Project starts, and class is in session on the Georgia-born emcee's latest mixtape, produced by Kanye West. Lesson one, “Intro (Black Hystori),” awakens with an RZA-like sonic blast of strings (and gut-punch grunt) that sounds like a classic kung-fu film opening. CyHi lectures: “This the death of the trap/If you sleepin' on me/Go on, enjoy the rest of your nap/Tired of hearin' fake niggas and they regular raps they writin'/Guess it ain't no real leaders left on the map!” Track titles like “Huey,” “Mandela,” “Coretta” and “Basquiat” are a collection of the black free-thinkers and freedom fighters who are covered in these lessons, and whose ranks CyHi joins here. His “princely” moniker might bring up a self-indulgent image that belies his lyrical skill, and in fact, CyHi's consciousness of his own oratorical deftness (akin to that of Malcolm X and Kwame Toure) does make him come across as more regal than erudite. He concludes the album with “Black Pride” and a boast—“Nigga, this the closest thing to The Chronic album”—that exemplifies the 30-year-old rapper's ambition for doing something great.