CyHi The Prynce, Jack Of All Trades

As his G.O.O.D. Music team rides a wave of success following releases from Big Sean (Finally Famous) and Kanye West (Watch the Throne), the versatile CyHi The Prynce sets eyes on following suit. Coming on the heels of June's well-received Royal Flush 2, the G.O.O.D. Music Prynce returns to flex some more lyrical muscle on his latest mixtape, Jack Of All Trades.

A follow up to last year's Prynce of Jacks, the DJ Scream-hosted, Jack Of All Trades finds CyHi executing cunning wordplay over a variety of popular instrumentals, both new and old. The jacking spree kicks off on the smooth head-nodder "Assassin." Here, Cy fittingly sets the tone and mood of what's to come, unleashing a pool of witty bars, a trend that continues on "Artist," where his laid back delivery allows for canny rhymes like, "Don't get your bitch suplexed/We call her t-shirt cause she gave the whole crew neck." Trying his hands on a number of classics including Jay-Z's "Feelin It" ("Musician"), Naughty By Nature's "Hip-Hop Hooray" ("Teach-Her"), 2Pac's "Picture Me Rollin" (“Carpenter”) and more, the Decatur, GA native's signature fluid flow and lyrical prowess shine throughout.

The tape is short—it has 18 tracks, most no more than a minute-and-a-half, as the project clocks in at 30 minutes—and Jack of All Trades feels more like a collection of recent freestyles than a cohesive release. Like a basketball player that decides to get in the gym alone to put shots up for practice, it seems the 2011 XXL Freshman just wanted to be in the studio and keep his sword sharp on this one. And there's certainly nothing wrong with that.

The penultimate cut is the "Imaginary Player"-esque "Preacher," which finds Cy knowingly spitting, "Most rappers ball they whole career/But as a fan that ain't all you wanna hear," before ending with, "He say he sold dope but I think that he a liar/And if he ain't, then he just preaching to the choir." This is one of two tracks longer than three minutes, and shows the pedestal the MC's pen game can rest on when creatively, conceptually employed. On the whole, Jack of All Trades is full of truncated highlights,= leaving the listener wanting more, and ultimately the project is a mere taste of what may be in store for the ATLien. For now, he certainly has a G.O.O.D. hand. —Ralph Bristout