Why Kid Cudi is upset with Kanye
A beta-male-rap love triangle
Internets,
This week’s beef between Kanye West and Kid Cudi has all the hallmarks of a classic lovers’ quarrel.
Cudi, it seems, is upset with Kanye not because of anything specific Kanye did, or even the fact that Cudi’s career has stalled to the point where only committed Cudi stans–like the late, great Melanie Acosta(s)–could tell you the last time he dropped an album or what it was called, but rather because he heard that Kanye is working on an album with Drake, and he’s jealous. He wishes Kanye were working on an album with him rather than Drake.
Thoughts currently going through Cudi’s head:
What does Drake have that Kid Cudi doesn’t have?
Remember when Kanye used to look at Kid Cudi the way he looks at Drake?
If Kanye can’t see what he had with Kid Cudi, he doesn’t deserve Kid Cudi anyway!
On Twitter the other day, Cudi launched into a multi-tweet diatribe, complaining that Kanye doesn’t care about him anymore and accusing Kanye of having 30 ghostwriters working for him. The latter came as a surprise to people who, in their defense, may have been four years old when I spearheaded an effort to have Kanye banned from the Grammys on the grounds that a rapper who uses a ghostwriter shouldn’t be allowed to win a Grammy, I mean if Milli Vanilli was forced to give back their Grammys when it was revealed that their vocals were performed by two senior citizens and a woman, and therefore can’t be expected to know that Kanye doesn’t write his own rhymes.
Similarly, I wrote a letter to the college I went to explaining that I couldn’t possibly be expected to know who all was involved in World War II, having only been born in the early ’80s, and not only did they allow me to graduate without having passed a 100-level US history class, but they were able to line up an internship for me with The FADER.
But I digress.
Kanye had “collaborated” with Cudi as recently as this year’s the Life of Pablo, and it’s likely that this album he’s supposedly working on with Drake wouldn’t have signaled the end of his work with Cudi. Right now, he just needs to work with someone who might help breathe life into his own career. He’s in the same position Jay Z was in when they made Watch the Throne. Drake’s album Views, whatever its flaws, will probably end up being the top rap album of 2K16. It dominated the Billboard 200 for most of the summer. If you don’t adjust for the fact that Billboard charts are scammy and useless, it can be argued that Views is more popular this year than Purple Rain was in 1984.
The Life of Pablo, meanwhile? Not so much. I can hardly think of the name of a song from the album other than “Panda,” which, as I recall, has a different name in its Life of Pablo iteration. Alas, the version that became one of the top rap songs of the year is the one with no Kanye on it. Though arguably, the fact that Kanye had the foresight to put the song on his album is a testament to his ability to take ideas other people came up with and present them as if they were his own. If only the song’s lyrics weren’t completely unintelligible. Kanye could have recorded his own version of the song, sans Desiigner, and maybe this wouldn’t be an issue.
Cudi can’t write rhymes on this Drake and Kanye album, because he already wrote rhymes on the Life of Pablo, and we see how well that turned out. Maybe Pablo is fine creatively; I wouldn’t know. Taxstone, whom I’m willing to take advice from, says he prefers Pablo to Views. But if they’re going to make any money from this group album, their best bet is to use Drake’s ghostwriter. Hardly anyone seemed to actually like Views, but look how many copies it sold. A Drake-Kanye album could follow a similar path to even greater success. I already don’t like it!
Because Kid Cudi is on a special kind of cocaine that comes in jars rather than baggies, he didn’t have the sense to realize that Kanye can’t continue to pay him if Kanye can’t make any money his damn self. Hopefully Kanye, who married Kim Kardashian, can find the compassion within himself to forgive Kid Cudi. I shudder to think what Cudi might do if he ever gets truly desperate.
Take it easy on yourself,
Bol
Originally published at tinyletter.com.
