Two years ago, Kid Cudi was in deep trouble. Arrested for kicking down the door of a girl he was dating's apartment, rumours of dependency on cocaine, a huge sophomore slump double album and things got worse.
Kid Cudi called out Ghostface Killah for a rap off and got destroyed and finally, faced with Kanye West's advise as to how to get his career back in line, he told his mentor, the man who put the unknown Cudi on 808's And Heartache's, to shove it, quit Good Ass Music and started again.
Wow! Not many people drop Kanye West. Maybe nobody. But Kid Cudi, as deeply weird a rocker as an Axl or an Elvis, or a Kanye himself for that matter. His dad died of cancer when Cudi was 11 years old and his dark, nightmarish sound appears to be a constant reflection of that defining moment.
What is strange to me is that didn't Cudi to do as Lennon did, spend his life searching out daddy figures. Instead he went his own way and paid the price or rather… didn't.
Earlier this year he released his first album with his producer dot da genius, named after the band (and ELO) WZRD.
I am ambivalent. A quasi-rock album that is so distracted and weird that I, personally, am shocked it charted at # 3. Again, the feel is that Cudi is such a deeply introverted and disturbed guy that he can fight his way out.
But maybe he can. It is so rare to find someone who does exactly what he wants and gets to # 3 in the album charts.