But even as a party track, it fails because of Cudi’s melodic decisions.
The beat is quick, the drums deliberate, and the groove reminiscent of mid-2000s Neptunes production, courtesy of The Cool Kids’ Chuck Inglish. When the rapping starts, though, the space between the two is a schism, and the marijuana pun in the song’s title remains its sharpest point for nearly four minutes.
Other highlights include “All Along,” a lush composition of thumping, distant tom drums and swelling strings, while the bubbling interlude “We Aite (Wake Your Mind Up)” comes with crowd noise and achieves its atmosphere.īut even the tone of Cudi’s “Uh, yeah” ad-libs at the start of “Ashin’ Kusher” reek of Kanye West. Vincent saves “MANIAC” with an infectious vocal loop from “The Strangers,” from her 2009 album Actor. “Live through words, not metaphors/ So I pass to be the rest of the freshmen,” Cudi sing-raps on “Mojo So Dope” over a moody, faux-lo-fi sample from Copenhagen band Choir of Young Believers. But with continued support of that caliber, it’s understandable that Cudi considers himself beyond his peers. Blige and even GLC sounding similarly out of place at amateur hour. The songs don’t earn their star power, with Cee-Lo, Mary J. KANYE DOES THE COURTESY OF STOPPING BY FOR THE GUITAR-led first single, “Erase Me,” a misguided stab at radio play that would’ve made more sense with a 21st century Rivers Cuomo. But where West’s very public trials-his near-fatal car wreck, the death of his mother, his outburst at the 2009 Video Music Awards-lend a certain well-manicured gravitas to his public persona, Cudi’s youthfulness is easily read as folly. West’s experiment set a precedent for the electronic influence and bare introspection of the singing rapper, making way for both Cudi’s sonic trials-downtempo, spare keyboard whirrs plod over tribal or intergalactic drums-as well as for his whinier indulgences. Cudi, after all, was born from West’s most personal, committed and polarizing album. But it also fits with the mind of an admitted egotist. The plug makes sense on a financial level: West’s GOOD Music is releasing Man on the Moon II in association with Universal Motown.
“He is my favorite living artist and not just cause he’s on my label.” “Please go pre order Kid Cudi’s album,” West tweeted recently. Before West found Cudi, his main contribution was a free-download mixtape distributed by clothing line 10.Deep his next was a contribution to West’s 2008 album 808s & Heartbreak. Wale complained that Kanye West, who is Cudi’s mentor, hadn’t offered him any beats in response, Cudi told Complex magazine, constrasting himself to Wale, “We don’t fuck with you musically.” The phrase is now emblazoned on a virally distributed T-shirt.Ĭudi and West are in fact a “we,” and that is Cudi’s strongest asset. Asher Roth came and went, leaving a slight aftertaste of shame Charles Hamilton’s high volume of output couldn’t compensate for his lack of sanity and Wale put out a much celebrated mixtape, but flopped with a full-length and failed to make any friends. It’s an ambitious sound and an of-the-moment sound, which is what propels Cudi to the near-top of his cohort: the magazine XXL put Cudi on its cover for the Class of 2009 issue, and only B.o.B. Cudi makes neopseychedelic (or just faux-futuristic and druggy) hip-hop, built around beats that could be flipped passages from rock operas.