Cudi Pleases Himself, Comes Up Short
Kid Cudi entered the hip hop scene in 2008 via his mixtape A Kid Named Cudi. Rapper and producer Kanye West took notice of the mixtape and signed Cudi to West’s personal label GOOD Music.
Man on the Moon: The End of Day, Kid Cudi’s debut studio album, was pretty huge for the world of hip hop. Released in 2009, this album fell into a reconstruction of hip hop that encouraged a more sample-based, alternative-influenced scene.
The late 2010’s were abuzz with the names of legends like Eminem, Kanye West, and Jay-Z, and for a while there it looked like Kid Cudi was carving his own name in the hall of legends. Cudi’s debut studio album was extremely well received, racking in three Grammy nominations and two number four spots on the US Billboard 200 and Billboard Top Albums chart each. Producers for this album included Cudi, West, and Ratatat, giving the album a really fresh, up-and-coming sound.
Since his debut, Cudi has released five additional albums. Most notably, he released Man on the Moon II: The Legend of Mr. Rager. This installment was indicated to be the second album of a three part Man on the Moon trilogy. The artist also worked as the lead singer of the group WZRD, producing an eponymous album WZRD in 2012. This album was described by Cudi as “a rock album, no raps, just singing. brand new thing” via Twitter. He promised rap fans that a mixtape to be called A Man Named Scott would be upcoming in the summer; the mixtape has yet to drop. After working with WZRD, Cudi returned to create another solo album, his first solo album that wasn’t part of the Man on the Moon trilogy. In January of 2013, the upcoming album was named the ninth most anticipated album of 2013 by Complex. This album, Indicud, was released as a hip hop/alternative hip hop album, but Cudi also said that it was intended to have a new, more positive slant than his previous music. Fans of Cudi’s original sound may have been disappointed by Indicud, which received generally mixed to positive reviews (a 58 out of 100 from Metacrtic). This album moved to a more psychedelic, surrealist sort of sound that may be less accessible than Cudi’s earlier albums. When the artist released Satellite Flight: the Journey to Mother Moon in February of 2014, stating that this album was prelude to the next Man on the Moon album acting as a bridge between Indicud and Man on the Moon III, fans felt sure that Cudi would return to his original sound soon.
On December 4, 2015, Cudi took an extended break from the Man on the Moon trilogy, releasing Speedin’ Bullet 2 Heaven. This album moves even further away from what Cudi rose to fame for. In fact, Kid Cudi has been active on Twitter refuting the label of “hip hop” in place of purely “alternative.” The album has only been out for a day, and so far the reviews have been mixed.
Kid Cudi shaped hip hop music, in his own way. But, realistically, if he continues to release music like that found on Speedin’ Bullet 2 Heaven, he will fade even further into cult-hood obscurity; it’s just not commercial enough. Cudi is making music that he feels fulfills him and he believes is his best music to date. The artist is taking part in creation that is almost masturbatory in how much it pleases him without even being slightly entertaining for the masses to participate in (we don’t want to watch you pleasure yourself, dude). While it is sad to watch any beloved artist fall in a direction that we wish he or she wouldn’t, I have to wonder if part of the corralling of Kid Cudi into the genre of hip hop has to do with his African American personhood. The alternative music scene is largely dominated by Caucasians, and hip hop is similarly dominated by African Americans. From a distance, it’s easy for people to take one look at Cudi, and push him into the rap/hip hop genre. As is usually the case, just because something is easy definitively does not mean it is right. The artist has pushed his way into the alternative genre with Speedin’ Bullet 2 Heaven; the album contains no synths or electronic sounds at all. Whether we like it or not, Cudi has departed from the Man on the Moon style, and I doubt that the third installation (if) when it comes, will sound much like Cudi’s original sound at all. He has developed into a different musical style completely, and he will not be able to repress that in the third and final album.
So, Cudi has changed. Everyone changes. It hurts sometimes. But he’s loving it, so don’t expect anything purely hip hop from Kid Cudi anytime soon, if ever.
Rock on, Cudi?