"Mandela" by Cyhi the Prynce- A Musical Analysis 1
"Mandela" By Cyhi The Prince
Produced in 2014, U.S.
Some songs can just be listened to. They are catchy and entertaining without any analysis. Some songs, like Cyhi's Mandela, are much more profound. Every scratch at the lyrics can lead to surprising rabbit holes that seem bottomless. The song was released on the mix tape called " Black Hystori," which is fitting because it needs to be analyzed through a historical lens. The song references American and south African history going back hundreds of years. This might seem daunting, but the bars are excellent and worth the journey. I was going to include the mix tape cover art, but it was just a picture with "Black Hystori" in the center. So instead, I'll use the common black power fist symbol. It matches the theme well.
Here is a link to the song and the lyrics if you want to follow along. Video cant do outside publishing.
What others have said:
I read a review blog on Fuxwithit.com, cited below, and it generally just said that this hits hard. Couldn't agree more. It sounds very good. They cited it as being intelligent, which I agree with. sounds very smart. It's honestly difficult to find much that's said about the music elements online. This is with the exception of people talking about how the bars are really good or he is spitting bars.
Bars can have a few meanings here. It can be referring to his lyrical style as in this sounds very good (Alexa Dictionary). But the other meaning could be in reference to spitting bars, which is a very specific music term. This refers to a specific amount of count per specific beat. Typically being 16 counts per 4 beats (Urban Dictionary) or in other words, a 16th note. Those look something like this and count like this in order to form one measure.
This would be called one bar. Each beat consists of 4 16th notes. 4 beats being on bar and one bar being one verse.
A very short history of Gangsta rap
A short and incomplete but hopefully informative history of Gangsta Rap is needed to understand this piece fully. Gangsta Rap is a subgenre of hip-hop pioneered in the 1980s(Historyofhiphop). It's made to be a reflection of a life that many highbrow people like to look away from and ignore. It is supposed to draw attention to the struggles of poor and black people in inner cities. If it makes you uncomfortable, it is supposed to. This song is not necessarily Gangsta Rap, but it has to be understood within that context. Unlike most songs in this genre, this song specifically draws your attention to possible solutions.
The lyrics here are the bread and butter of the song. It's incredibly complicated, so ill just break it down line by line, with some help from lyric genius. I use lyric genius extensively in this blog post. I'll skip over self-explanatory lines.
The first two lines are critical. They are referenced in surprising ways throughout the song. The first line is.
"I'm a freedom fighter, Dalai Lama from a weed supplier"
From the initial reading, this sounds like somebody just rapping about drugs. And while it is, it's not. The drugs are part of a theme: the ongoing war on drugs. That theme will come up again and again in this rap. So when you hear any reference to drugs, think of the war on drugs.
This initial line is about how he used to sell weed, but now he is a music guru. Notably, he was a freedom fighter the whole time(uoeno_tikk and DetroitLeprechaun Genius).
The following line, and pay close attention to it, is:
"I'm Muhammad to the rap game, that's my last name, my first should be Elijah"
Who is Elijah Muhammad? You can google it, but I'll answer that at the end. Just remember that name.
Beat
The following few lines are self-explanatory. He talks about trying to get people off the streets. but it gets exciting when we get to the line
"And I don't need the beat, cuz I can easily.... Speak to these, niggas through the frequencies"
At this point, the beat drops. It's gone, and we are left with just his voice(uoeno_tikk and whenigetfree Genius). I think the beat here is supposed to mean drums or something. . I personally still hear the beat, but The drums are playing less. So maybe this is what the author meant by the beat dropping. The beat doesn't return for 6 lines until we get to "So I'm riding" The 6 lines without any beat are pretty interesting, ending in a double-entendre.
After this, most of the rest of the first verse talks about insider things until we get to:
"Got the mind of a disciple when I'm rocking a revival"
This is a reference to the later line:
"I'm Desmond Tutu mixed with the Zeus of the Zulus"
Desmond Tutu is the first bishop of Cape town who helped break up Apartheid( Britannica). He compares himself to Desmond Tutu because he views the American war on drugs as just Apartheid with a different spelling.
After another line, we get to the first bridge.
[Bridge]
Mandela! Nelson Nelson! (I want my troops in the field like)
Mandela! Nelson Nelson! (All these niggas wanna kill)
Mandela! Nelson Nelson! (Y'all gone make me do 20 years like)
Mandela! Nelson Nelson! (Man I'm starting to feel like)
All these lines are about both Cyhi and Mandela. In case it is confusing to anyone, He wants his troops or people to be peaceful like Mandela's were. He thinks he is in danger like Mandela was.
The Hook is simple and self-explanatory.
He again brings up his drug dealing past for the second and final verse. But this time, he says he did it to afford a car. He continues to talk about his life until the verse.
"Prince to a king, you don't see the evolution..... 20 years in the pen man that's really execution"
In this verse, he compares his evolution to Mandela's. He talks about how the old Mandela died when he spent 20 years in prison and evolved(MarkoSmith Genius). He has also evolved and wants to destroy the war on drugs like Mandela destroyed apartheid.
After this, we get the prescriptive statement:
"So I encourage each and every student...... To stay in school, play it cool, obey the rules or....... pay your dues, make a move, take a tool or"
This is followed by the joke that trying to be a rapper like him is foolish. He then mentions that he wants to get 40 acres in a mule, his dream and the unfulfilled promise given to the freedmen after the civil war. Something he feels like he was promised and also another justification for why so many people feel the need to sell drugs; as a way of achieving this dream. This is confirmed by the following line "Ridin with 40 acres in a two door" which references the car he wanted.
The last lines:
"I feel like Larenz Tate in the pool hall.... right before Terrance Howard lit the Newport. "
This is where we get back to the beginning. During this scene, one of the characters feels strongly that the Vietnam war was a white man's war, not their war. This is similar to Muhammad Ali's mentality when he protested the Vietnam war. Also, a view shared by famous civil rights leader Malcolm X. Who was a mentor to both Muhammad Ali and Malcolm X? Elijah Muhammad.
Form
This song follows a straightforward form. Starts with verse 1. It then moves into the bridge and the hook. After that, we get to verse 2, followed by another Bridge and hook.
Rhythm and Dynamics
In this song, these two are very related. The Rhythm increases speed during verse 2 towards the final bridge and hook. This is paired with the Dynamics, which change alongside the Rhythm. The song starts quietly, but as we get closer to the end of verse 2, it steadily gets louder.
This is done to pump the listener up about his prescriptive statement, which takes up the second verse's final half. Both of these work together to energize and encourage the listener. Ideally, in the end, you'll feel the desire to yell along with the bridge and the hook.
“Spit Bars.” Urban Dictionary, https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=spit+bars.
Lemoine, Alexa. “Bars Meaning & Origin.” Dictionary.com, Dictionary.com, 19 Jan. 2021, https://www.dictionary.com/e/slang/bars/.
“Gangsta Rap.” HistoryofHipHop, 11 Apr. 2014, https://historyofthehiphop.wordpress.com/music-genres/gangsta-rap/.
“Desmond Tutu.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 22 Dec. 2022, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Desmond-Tutu.
“AZLyrics - Request for Access.” AZLyrics.com, https://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/cyhitheprynce/mandela.html.
“Cyhi – Mandela.” Genius, https://genius.com/Cyhi-mandela-lyrics.
says:, Maddison, et al. “What Are the 8 Elements of Music?” Jooya Teaching Resources, 5 Nov. 2022, https://juliajooya.com/2020/10/11/what-are-the-8-elements-of-music/.
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