The Kid's Alright
Jonathon Valenzuela speaks with New York's rising star of alternative hip hop
"October 7th 2004, to be exact."
For a date to become fixed in a man's mind like that, something pretty important has to have happened. For Scott Mescudi, it was the start of a journey that took him from obscurity to fame and made the indie world sing the praises of KiD CuDi, the newest M.C. to change the game of hip hop.
CuDi got started early, spending his teenage years writing rhymes and working on music: "I first started to pursue a career in music when I was 15, doing little demos here and there, and then I came up with the idea to move to New York when I was 19. I went to college and it wasn't really working out for me, I did my one year and I wasn't happy with my life, I felt something was missing. I needed to pursue music: it was all I could think about."
After a year off from college, he put his idea into action, leaving his native Cleveland, Ohio, to head to the big city and make his mark. While it would be nice to think that a limousine picked him up at the city limits, instant fame was not the case: "I didn't meet [Plain] Pat until 2006, so I was in New York kinda grinding it out. I had no plan as such, I just had a vision, had a dream, and that was where I needed to be." This two years in the wilderness would prove to be a blessing in disguise, as it yielded the song Day N Nite, which has got the entire music world paying attention.
In a genre flooded by over-produced M.C.s yelling about the new four pillars of hip hop (guns, bitches, bling and drugs), Day N Nite stands out as a potential way forward. The production is minimalist and haunting - gradually descending synth lines underscored by sporadic bass drum kicks and hand claps. CuDi's flow stretches languidly over this, calm and melodic. Lyrically, it's a breath of fresh air. The entire track is a meditation on isolation and restlessness, the chorus centering on the refrain "The lonely stoner seems to free his mind at night/He's all alone, some things will never change". This introspection is reinforced by a heartfelt delivery, unblemished by ego or fancy studio tricks: "I was going through a lot of personal issues at the time and I felt like I needed to vent. I had these ideas in my head, I had an idea for the beat and I presented them to a producer I was working with at the time, Dot Da Genius. I had the lyrics already, and the beat was made to what I had recorded on my phone."
CuDi shys away from the self-hype, preferring to remain pragmatic about the song: "I was actually a little self-conscious because I wanted people to respect me so much as an M.C. that I was like "Man, I can't have this record be my first record, I'm not really rapping on it". But then I thought ‘fuck that, man: it is what it is, it's a good record, it's deep, it's real.' I felt like if people hear it and they appreciate it for what it is, they can't front on it.
With a potential hit in the bag, it was time to make a move. Enter Plain Pat. Known for his work on Kanye West's Graduation, he and CuDi ran into each other at Def Jam records, where Pat was working. Soon after hearing CuDi's early recordings, Pat quit and began managing him, which lead to CuDi meeting A-Trak, Kanye West's DJ and co-owner of the influential indie record label Fool's Gold. A-Trak heard what CuDi had done so far and was impressed enough to sign a deal with him and get him on the Screaming Bloody Murder tour, a collaboration between Fool's Gold and Dim Mak that travelled throughout the U.S. and dipped into Canada.
Currently, CuDi is putting the finishing touches on his mixtape A Kid named Cudi, and an album is not too far off: "It's going to be hard to follow up [‘Day N Nite'] because it's so big and it's still growing, but I'm always reinventing myself for every record I create. I've got [tracks] right now that are 10 times bigger than Day N Nite that nobody has even heard yet. So now I'm more confident in it and I tell everybody "You love Day N Nite, well you ain't heard nothing yet." Nobody is ready for what I am about to bring right now."
Not only has Day N Nite been a huge hit on the blogs, it has also made the crossover to the clubs, thanks to the efforts of the Italian production duo Crookers: "That was A-Trak's idea. When we were working on a couple of remixes for the single, he asked me if I would be interested in letting these guys from Italy remix the record. I had never heard of them, but I respected A-Trak's judgement because he knows about that type of shit. I did my research on these guys and I said "Go ahead, let's see what they come up with." And they ended up making the illest fucking remix. It's just so dope to see something that you made, see somebody put their own spin on it. They didn't know me but they stayed true to the vibe of the record but made it into a club vibe."
And now he is set to travel to Australia for his first international tour. Already, he has been tipped as one of the top artists to watch out for in 2008 by Rolling Stone magazine, as well as garnering favourable reviews from trend-setter magazines like Fader and URB. His fame is assured, however he still keeps his feet on the ground:
"I'm just a kid from Ohio who had dreams and aspirations to make beautiful music that touches people of all races and all ages. I get all types of messages on my website, from fanmail and on my Myspace, people saying the record touches them in different ways and helps them get through the day. People hit me up and it's not like "Yo, your record is fucking dope, I smoke mad weed to it". I get messages like, this little kid hit me up and said "Yo, I'm going through some personal problems, my girlfriend left me, I don't know what to do but I put on your song and it helps me through, let's me know everything is gonna be okay". That's the biggest reward right there."
Catch Kid Cudi alongside Ro Sham Bo at La Campagna on Sat 21 June.
Listen to his track Day 'N' Nite (Main) by using the player below