A Tale of Three Cities: Rapper Yvm Prynce’s unique style pulls from his three home states – Wyoming Tribune

Editor’s note: This is the second story in the Wyoming Tribune Eagle’s four-part series diving into Cheyenne’s emerging hip-hop scene and the young people shaping it.

Rap isn’t just a hobby for DaMontri McCormick. It’s what got him through jail.

One windy city to the next

Growing up on the south side of Chicago, music was always a part of McCormick’s daily life. Hip-hop was woven into the cultural fabric of his neighborhood, and that continued when he moved to Detroit as a 14-year-old.

But that move was short-lived, because as soon as McCormick and his brother (Derrion Marshaun McCormick of food truck Nay&Jays) got involved with local gangs, their mom started looking for a place to relocate. She settled on Cheyenne after speaking to the boys’ cousin, who was stationed at F.E. Warren Air Force Base.

“He told my mom it was a good place to move to – nice, quiet, all that stuff,” McCormick said. “She took that into consideration, and when me and my brother came back from Chicago for the summer to see our dad, she was like, ‘We don’t live in Detroit anymore, we live in Cheyenne, Wyoming.’ And I’m like, ‘Where is that at, Japan?’”

By November 2006, McCormick and his family were living in a city he hadn’t thought about since his elementary school state capitals project (for which he’d been assigned Cheyenne to research – a memory that resurfaced after his mother’s announcement).

McCormick went on to attend Johnson Junior High School and then East High School, where he considered himself a fairly popular kid, forming friendships with everyone from athletes to the kids playing Yu-Gi-Oh! at lunch.

McCormick was always an avid music consumer, but he never pursued the craft. That changed at the age of 16, when he was visiting Detroit and his cousin asked him to jump on a track. McCormick had never even considered a career in music, but his cousin was impressed, so he started recording himself rapping when he got home. By 17, he was writing his own songs, and at 24, he and his brother performed onstage for the first time in Denver.

Turning his life around

But trouble still followed him, and throughout his early and mid 20s, McCormick was in and out of court for a series of misdemeanor offenses. In March 2012, he pleaded guilty to a felony burglary charge and was sentenced to two years of probation (but ended up in jail for a probation violation). Another charge of larceny in that case was dismissed.

When he went to jail for the first time at 19, music took on a new meaning in his life.

“I really started to get serious about it, because, you know, I was just looking for a way out, to change my life,” he said. “Being locked up kind of helped me focus on it … it really helped me cope with my situation. Me writing was just a way to release my energies and stuff like that, so it was a great coping mechanism.”

McCormick has continued to face legal trouble – most recently, on June 23, 2020, he was charged with domestic assault in a case that’s ongoing – but since his last period behind bars, he’s felt inspired to focus on his music career and “stay out of trouble.”

Yvm Prynce, which is a combination of the initials for “Young View Movement” and his cat’s name, is the stage name McCormick has gone by since early in his rap career. “Young” refers to the youth who are currently fighting against their oppressors (he cited the Black Lives Matter movement as an example), “view” stands for the visuals that represent this fight, and “movement” stands for the larger cultural moment that is this fight for equality.

The Yvm concept came to him while in jail, and he said it’s rooted in consciousness and being awake to your surroundings.

After that initial spark of inspiration, McCormick got a laptop, downloaded the music recording software Mixcraft, and taught himself how to make and produce his own music. Nearly six years ago, he dropped his first album, “Growth and Development,” on Soundcloud. His first on Spotify, “Alive,” debuted in September 2019. The latter also featured his brothers Marshuan McCormick (listed as Marshuan Lee), Terran Gallegos (2une Godi) and Treyven Gallegos (Trey Wrks), who he collaborates with frequently.

McCormick’s never been signed with a label, but he’s currently a working musician who makes money by putting his tracks on DistroKid. For a yearly fee of $19.99, the distribution platform allows artists to upload unlimited albums and/or singles on Spotify, iTunes, Amazon, Tidal, TikTok, YouTube and more, and each artist gets to keep 100% of the earnings from every stream.

“Each stream is like three cents or something,” he said. “So, I’m in the process of making it a full-time job. Right now, it’s paying my bills … the more playlists you get on, the more money you make.”

McCormick currently has six albums, and three were released in 2020 alone. This uptick in material is a reflection of his goal to get on 5,000-some playlists and make enough money to change his and his children’s lives.

“My goal, in general, first of all, is for people just to hear my story,” he said. “And then another goal is to be rich … so I can invest in things, build businesses, help people, help the poor, preach to kids about my situation – about me going to prison and stuff, and letting them know the way out.”

Changing the music landscape

His other goal is to put Cheyenne on the map for its hip-hop community, and one way to do that is by getting onstage as much as possible – something he hadn’t done much of until last year.

Ever since he started performing at the Dillinger’s open mic series a couple months ago, McCormick has been attracting some of the biggest crowds, and organizer Dominic Syracuse noted him as a pivotal figure in the growing popularity of the event.

“We started musical open mic nights at Dillinger’s because I knew there were a lot of talented musicians in town,” Syracuse said. “What I had no idea about was the underground hip-hop scene that has developed. Not only is there a massive following, but there is an amazing amount of talented rappers, singers and producers in our city. Yvm Prynce was one of the first people to perform, and is easily one of the most gifted. He’s got a unique style, an amazing stage presence and a devoted following in town.”

McCormick said his style of rap has been heavily influenced by his atypical childhood split between Chicago, Detroit and Cheyenne, and even though he never expected to get into hip-hop in the Cowboy State, he’s found that it’s a perfect community to get started in the genre.

“This place has a lot of good people – there’s a lot of open-minded people here,” he said. “People like to stereotype this place as a place for cowboys and racists, but that’s not what it’s all about. There’s a lot of things going on here that people can learn from, and I feel like we could take Cheyenne to the next level.”

He added that when somebody’s searching on YouTube, for example, he hopes they can type in Cheyenne and see music videos, peaceful Black Lives Matter protest footage and other clips that will eventually prevent non-Wyomingites from finding local rappers’ material and “judging it before they even hear it.”

Expanding his brand

McCormick thinks big, which is evident by all the projects he currently has in the works: a new record, book, documentary and clothing line (Doves and Rose’s). The plan is to release these by the end of 2021, and the latter will include collaborations with local artists so they can create hoodies and other articles of clothing to promote their own personal brands.

He credits his unique upbringing for his variety of interests, which also helps him connect with music fans of all backgrounds.

“It makes everything way easier for me – when it comes to understanding people, places,” he said. “My style is so different, so at any point, I can make any type of song just because of basically all the music I know because of all my friends. … It’s built into me.”