This is what KiD CuDi defines himself as. He is an "alternative" artist. His music is supposed to be "alternative hip-hop", not just rap. CuDi emerged on the hip-hop scene in mid-2008 when he released A Kid Named CuDi, his first professional mixtape. The tape gained the attention of Kanye West, who immediately requested to work with CuDi. CuDi, real name Scott Mescudi, helped West write his eventual hit single "Heartless" and appeared as guest on "Welcome to Heartbreak" on West's 808's and Heartbreak. Within just a few months of the 808's appearance, Mescudi released his first single "Day N' Nite" in February of 2009. The track quickly gained popularity and rose to as high as #3 on the Billboard Hot 100 that year. The song also gained a number of accolades, including two Grammy nominations and two more nominations from the BET Hip Hop Awards. Mescudi followed the success of "Day N' Nite" with his debut album, Man on the Moon: The End of Day, in September of 2009. The album proved to be a significant achievement for the emerging artist, reaching Gold status by selling over 500,000 copies and meeting generally good reviews.
It's safe to say that since this, except in the Cleveland area where he was already huge, Mescudi has been one of the most popular emcees that performs today. He is set to release his second album, Man on the Moon II: The Legend of Mr. Rager in just over a week. Something has been bugging me of late, however. The more I listen to CuDi's material, especially his recent tracks, I can't help but take a step back and check to see if I've been drinking too much of the CuDi kool-aid. . .and if everyone else has been doing the same thing. My Ohio friends won't like to hear this, but is there a possibility that we've severely overrated CuDi to this point as a hip-hop emcee? Should CuDi be looked upon as, what MTV obviously considers, one of the hottest MC's today? Let's take a look at the CuDi dilema, just to see if I maybe am onto something. . .
- Okay, so first off, let me state that I'm pretty confident the majority of hip-hop listeners don't think CuDi is the greatest rapper ever or even close to being the best one today. I also acknowledge that CuDi doesn't have near the fan base that an artist like Weezy has. I'm pretty sure as well that CuDi doesn't intend to try to be the best. He's stated that he loves the guitar more than rapping, so that should tell everyone he doesn't care about hip-hop a great deal. So with all of these factors, should I even try to argue that he's overrated?
The answer is yes, and there's the first problem with CuDi. CuDi earned the "lonely stoner" persona after his descriptions in "Day N' Nite" and the majority of Man on the Moon. We look at CuDi and instantly feel for him. He was an outcast in high school; the "class clown" as he describes on "My World ft. Billy Cravens". Don't get me wrong, much of his music is personally and emotionally charged. However, why aren't we critical of him like other artists such as Nas? Think about it. If Nas ever dropped the kind of rhymes that CuDi gets away with, he'd be crucified by the critics and hip hop faithful.
Yet, when CuDi drops a song with maybe two actual lines of lyrics that even rhyme, we turn a blind eye. If CuDi calls himself a rapper, shouldn't he be looked upon with the same standards other rappers have? Sure, he has a different sound and CuDi's goals are certainly different than other emcees. But he's still a hip hop artist first, making it unfair for us to give him a pass on rhymes that the rest of the artists today would never attempt, knowing that they were weak to begin with. You want to tell me that "Mr. Rager" is a good hip hop song? Constantly repeating the same hook with a three line verse thrown in between doesn't constitute a good song in any genre, especially hip hop.
- Okay, so if it's clear that CuDi lacks behind the rest of emcees in lyrical quality, why do people still love to listen to his music? There's a couple reasons for this, but my guess is that production is the biggest. CuDi's music, and this isn't debatable, is a stoner's dream. It's spacey. It makes you feel like your really on another planet. It causes you to feel deeply on both an intellectual and emotional level. It's these reasons that cause me to consistently come back and listen to his material. However, what I've come to realize, is that CuDi's stuff is so good to replay is his beats. After all, isn't that what most casual hip hop listeners look for? They want to, as well as me, hear beats you can bang your head to. You want to hear beats to get you pumped, or as in CuDi's case, to lay back and chill to.
It'd be one thing if CuDi produced most of his material. But he doesn't. On his latest album, Man on the Moon II, CuDi produced a grand total of one song. On his debut album, he produced, you guessed it, one song. Now, there's a lot of emcees who don't produce their own material (I'm not even sure if Jay-Z has ever produced a song of his own). So if CuDi is like these artists who simply come into the studio to rap, why isn't he held to the same standard of criticism that we give Hova? He may have a different style, but if that's the case, we shouldn't be calling CuDi a good rapper, but rather, a good artist in whatever genre he's created.
- See where this is going? I'm not arguing that Mescudi isn't a great artist, I'm arguing that he's an overrated rapper. What's amazing about Mescudi however, is that he actually is tremendously talented at rapping, he just doesn't focus this talent enough. I'm going to cite the example of his first mixtape, A Kid Named CuDi, for my resource here. It stands as the only body of work from Mescudi that I've actually heard him consistently rap on to date. His track, "Down & Out", which uses a brilliant sample by producer Plain Pat from OutKast's "Chonkyfire", showcases CuDi's ability to rap to its fullest. It's remained one of my favorite CuDi tracks to this point, and for good reason. CuDi sounds confident and he's actually really, really good on his raps. He's got a great delivery on it and he also sounds like he wants to prove something as an emcee.
So if CuDi has the ability to be a great emcee, where has this been in the past two years, especially this one? CuDi clearly has been able to perform not in his "alternative" element and still sound good. Is there any reason he won't go back to this? There could be a couple answers to this question. One is the influence of drugs. CuDi has admitted that he was a coke addict and would use it to even just get through interviews. He also is a well known heavy marijuana user, which could have caused him to want to come off more as the "lonely stoner" persona I mentioned earlier. People have also embraced this persona, which could have caused CuDi to realize that he could get away with not having to rap seriously and still sell records and get critical praise. With all the talent Mescudi has, it seems to me a waste for him to continue in the direction he's going. We know he can rap, so why do we still give him praise for dropping very substandard lines? Does CuDi even care?
- Which brings me to my biggest, and most concerning, reason why CuDi is overrated. CuDi doesn't care about hip hop. In fact, he wants to give it up entirely according to his recent claims. CuDi has said he loves the guitar more and is planning on forming his own rock band, Wizard, in the upcoming months. Whether he becomes the next Bruce Springsteen or Weezy (who failed miserably in his Rebirth project) doesn't matter to me. What matters is that, as of today, CuDi is looked at by the public as a rapper first, rocker second. That means we should still be critical of his hip hop material first, rather than how he does as an artist in general. But if CuDi doesn't want to rap, then why should he?
This, to me, is the most frustrating part about CuDi. He states that he doesn't care about rap, yet, he is about to release his second rap album. If you don't want to keep rapping, that's fine. But don't keep doing it when you don't care about it. When I heard CuDi didn't even want to make a second rap album, it infuriated me. WHY DID YOU MAKE IT IF YOUR HEART WASN'T THERE IN THE FIRST PLACE? You're basically telling your fans this:
"Hey guys, I'm going to give you what you want with another album. Except, I don't really care about what music I'm putting on it, so it's probably not going to be what you were expecting. In fact, it'll probably be pretty bad from a hip hop standpoint, but you know what, I DON'T GIVE A SHIT. I know you'll just buy the album anyways and tell me how good I am because I have such a screwed up life and that the songs were inspiring and deep, even though I never cared about making them in the first place."
Sound harsh? That's what it sounded like to me, anyways. Not only is it a slap in the face to his hip hop fanbase, but to hip hop in general. There are so many young men (& women) who would give anything to have the resources CuDi has to make music. They would give up everything they had to get an opportunity to let the whole world hear how good they are behind the mic. When CuDi says that he doesn't care about hip hop, but still makes an album regardless, it's arrogant and hurts hip hop as a music in general. I'd much rather listen to an artist like Lupe, who seems to actually give a damn about what he puts on shelves (just listen to his most recent single "The Show Goes On").
I'll end with this. I like CuDi's music. "Down & Out" is one of my most played songs on iTunes, along with "Day N Nite" and "My World". As I mentioned, I think the guy has a ton of talent and that his music is certainly nothing like I've ever heard before. But, after taking a closer look into what CuDi's produced as an actual rapper, I have come to the conclusion that he is overrated to this point. I will be very interested to hear what critics think of Man on the Moon II when it is released in just over a week from today. I hope others will start to see my perspective, but I also realize I could be in the minority with this opinion as well. All in all, CuDi may be the Man on the Moon, but until that Man understands what he is supposed to be doing, he'll be lost in the musical abyss when his legacy is finally written.
