CyHi The Prynce has been one of the longest-serving—if not longest-suffering—members of Kanye West’s G.O.O.D. Music since signing to the label in 2010, but his career could have turned out very differently.

Appearing as a guest on the latest episode of Peter Rosenberg and Cipha Sounds’ Juan Epstein podcast, CyHi reveals how he almost signed to Jeezy’s CTE label before Kanye came knocking.

First, we’ll let CyHi explain how he linked up with Ye to begin with:

“I ended up doing a record with Yelawolf, we put a video out…and Ye — this was back when he had the Tumblr thing, he was online looking for inspiration for My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy — he saw the video and was like, 'yo, this is the hardest rap I ever heard.' Then he heard my mixtape and that’s when get I a call from No I.D., they asked me to come to Hawaii.”

However, something else happened (or was supposed to happen) in between Kanye becoming a fan of CyHi The Prynce and inviting him out to Hawaii.

“The week before, like four days before, I was supposed to sign with Jeezy. A lot of people don’t know that. I flew to Miami to do a deal with Jeezy. We were in the studio for like three nights and the last night, for some reason he didn’t show up and we had to leave. We never got the deal because he didn’t show up! And then three days later, Ye called me.”

CyHi ended up joining Kanye and the rest of the crew in Hawaii, and the rest is history. What’s crazy about this story, though, isn’t just that CyHi would’ve been repping a different label, but the butterfly effect implications his deal with Jeezy would’ve had—not only on CyHi’s career but others, too.

For starters, had CyHi never signed to Kanye, he probably would've never worked on My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy—and Watch The Throne, Yeezus and The Life of Pablo, for that matter—and wouldn’t have blessed the world with his breakout verse on "So Appalled."

He also wouldn’t have appeared on the G.O.O.D. Fridays songs “Looking For Trouble,” “Take One For the Team” and “Christmas In Harlem,” nor Cruel Summer cuts like “The Morning” and “Sin City” (not that anybody really cares about those last two). Who, if anyone, would Kanye have signed instead is a question we can ponder for days.

Had Jeezy showed up to the studio that night and closed the deal, CyHi probably would’ve released his debut album years ago, but would anyone have cared about it as much without Kanye’s co-sign? Who knows whether mixtapes like Ivy League Club or Black Hystori Project would’ve still happened.

Had Jeezy been focused on building CyHi’s career, would he have still signed Freddie Gibbs to CTE in 2011? Probably not. In which case, Freddie may have never launched his own ESGN label and definitely wouldn't have channeled the bitterness he harbored towards Jeezy into some of the best music of his career (see: "Real").

Though CyHi hasn’t been as prolific as he would’ve liked on G.O.O.D. Music, it’s fair to say him signing with Kanye was the best thing for everybody. Who knows: CyHi might not have been able to call in favors from Kanye, Pusha T, Big Sean, Travi$ Scott and ScHoolboy Q for his debut album (which is finally dropping this summer) had these last seven years turned out differently.

See, everything works out in the end.

Photo Credits: Facebook