Growing up with a dad in the Army, Samara Cyn moved around a lot, living in at least six different states by age 20. At the time, she hated it — like most teenagers, she just wanted to belong. But those experiences ended up fueling her 2024 EP, The Drive Home, which drew ravishing reviews for its poetic metaphors pulled from her childhood memories.
“Going to all of these different places and experiencing the cultures aided in my open-mindedness,” says the 26-year-old rapper, who was born in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, and is now based in L.A. “I’ve spent a lot of time in the car, moving and rapping. It’s where I feel privacy and can just blast music or do whatever I want. It was the first thing growing up that was mine.”
After releasing the EP last October, Cyn went through a phase of burnout. “I was forced to sit the fuck down for a second,” she says. She took advantage of that downtime to spruce up her home: She tells me she just purchased a new rug, and she has a wall in her office dedicated to artwork like the issue of NME where she was recently featured and the Cold Fact comic starring her musical hero, Tyler, the Creator.
Lately, she’s been spending time in the car again, fine-tuning the music for her next project. “It’s therapeutic for me,” she says. “I’ve been talking about what’s been on my heart and that’s been really nice.” She’s aiming for a lighter experience this time, taking on the feel of a Sunday drive on a winding road, no destination in mind. “I still want to be intentional, but maybe less conceptual,” she says. “The Drive Home was heavy and pretty serious. This time, I want the tone to be fun — but I want it to stay real. I want people to feel good when they’re listening to my music. I think it will help balance out my catalog.”
An inspired poet, she started making music in 2019, but was forced to stillness along with millions of others when the pandemic took hold. Yet in that alone time, she reflected, learning to find home — a place that constantly changed in her upbringing — in herself. This year, the universe seems to have similar plans, with the L.A. wildfires forcing her to slow down again. “Last year, we were building the plane as we were flying it,” she says. “This year, we had a weekly plan for January and February — it was to the T — but the wildfires happened, and it was like, ‘Whoa, let me take a step back and reevaluate on what’s important right now.’ Because what am I going to do? Call and say ‘Hey, can you produce this music video for me real quick? It’s not the time for that.”
Editor’s picks
As we chat, I notice Cyn’s “333” necklace. Cyn says the necklace, which was a gift, is representative of the mindfulness she practices in her day-to-day. “It’s a reminder to me that I’m good,” she says. “If I’m in traffic it’s just like, ‘Why are you so angry? Why are you so angst?’… I may be enlightened on what I should do to be the best version of myself, but I may not always have the discipline to get up and do that shit. My third eye is open, but it’s a little lazy.”
She recently got a major co-sign when Lauryn Hill, one of her all-time musical heroes, invited her out onstage at a Miami festival. “That experience was top-tier,” she says. “I’m still reeling.” She credits Hill’s 2002 MTV Unplugged album with inspiring her approach to music: “It was just so raw and bare and beautiful and human. That’s really the basis of when I started rapping.”
Trending Stories
Cyn hopes to finish her next project before she goes on tour with Smino this spring — 31 dates starting in May. “We’re really trying to build the live show,” she says. “It’s a really cool opportunity and a great way for me to practice and iron it out. That’s going to be an incredible and super dope experience.”
In the meantime, she’ll continue to take cues from the universe, paying attention to the external and using it as a tool to reconfigure her inner world. “It always happens when I’m gearing up for something and I’m about to go,” Cyn says of the forced pauses she’s encountered over the course of her career. “I get caught up with wanting things to be a type of way, and when plans change I struggle with it. But It’s a cool reminder to take a little more time and really think about how you want to approach this. I feel like the eyes are on me. So what are you going to do with that, especially with there being so much weight outside?”
