Kid Cudi
Kid Cudi (born Scott Mescudi in Cleveland, Ohio) is a rapper best described as emblematic of hip-hop's newest trend--the laid-back rapper who cares more about marijuana and women than street cred. He sprang onto the scene with the A Kid Named Cudi mixtape in 2008 and was signed to Kanye West's G.O.O.D. Music in the same year. A year later he released his debut album, Man on the Moon: The End of Day to widespread acclaim, with praise coming for the ethereal beats, Cudi's vocals and for putting his personal tastes for indie rock and similar genres to use. This was followed by Man on the Moon II: The Legend of Mr. Rager in 2010.
Notable songs include "Day 'n Nite", "Make Her Say", "Pursuit Of Happiness", and "Erase Me".
Cudi is also a member of the Alternative Rock duo WZRD, who released their debut-self titled album in February 2012
- Man on the Moon: The End of Day (2009)
- Man on the Moon II: The Legend of Mr. Rager (2010)
- Indicud (2013)
- Satellite Flight: The Journey to Mother Moon (2014)
- Speedin' Bullet 2 Heaven (2015)
- Passion, Pain & Demon Slayin' (2016)
- Kids See Ghosts (2018, with Kanye West)
- Alternative Hip Hop
- Concept Album: Both Man on the Moon albums.
- Genre Shift: "Up Up and Away" from Man on the Moon: The End of Day has sort of an indie rock style, after a whole album of rap. On the same album, there's "Pursuit of Happiness", which has influences from late 80's Dream Pop and features indie artists MGMT and Ratatat.
- A Worldwide Punomenon: the hook of "Make Her Say", based on a sample of the acoustic version of Lady Gaga's "Poker Face", makes the obvious joke:
"I make her say/oh oh oh oh/when I/p-p-p-poke her face, p-p-p-poke her face"
- The Stoner: The man has a song called "Marijuana"! He even lets the track run for a few extra seconds at the end so its length can reach 4:20.