Kid Cudi: The next level

“I’ve always felt like I was a little different to everybody else,” sighs hip hop eccentric Kid Cudi AKA Scott Mescudi. “I’ve always been a free-spirit type kid.” Introduced to hip hop by his older siblings and immersed in the music of The Beatles by his singing-teacher mother, Cudi says he was the black sheep of his hometown of Cleveland, Ohio. “It was like this script that everyone had to follow and if you didn’t, you were looked at like, ‘What the fuck?’ My whole swag, my whole thought process was different. I thought there was more to life than going to the club and baggin’ bitches. I just felt like I needed to do something, I just didn’t know what it was.”

Cudi’s answer came during a soul-searching mission to New York City. “The vibe of New York is very carefree and I needed that at that time. I basically became a man being in New York being on my own and seeing different walks of life all in one place and everyone on their grind, everybody on their own hustle. Even just getting on the train you got me sitting next to some cat that’s a lawyer or a big-time stockbroker and I’m going to work in a retail store.”

The city’s melting pot of cultural diversity affirmed Cudi’s individuality and helped him shake his self-consciousness. “You go out there and feel like you belong even though you’re different. That’s the reason I’m doing hip hop, when I was in New York I thought, ‘This is what I wanna do, let’s accomplish it’.” Inspired by his new surrounds and the renegade spirit of New York entertainer Andy Kaufman, from whom he took the nickname ‘Man on the Moon’, Cudi developed a style of confessional, quirky, genre-straddling rap he calls ‘the next level’.

“I’m speaking for those people that aren’t being spoken for. I don’t know who those people are, but I’m pretty sure they are out there. It’s just anybody that wants something they can really feel, that hits them emotionally, those who have an open mind about music and about life. My main goal is to fuck with people’s heads, and just say shit so people are like, ‘Woah, did he just bring that up? Did he just say that?’”

As part of this artistic goal, Cudi refreshingly avoids the hubris so many rappers rely on in their rhymes. “People tend to put celebrities or artists up on this pedestal, but, you know, if we cut we bleed just like everyone else. That’s a thing I’m trying to establish. I don’t want people to worship me and put me up on this pedestal. I want people to see me as a human being, and that’s Cudi.”

Citing artists such as Kanye West, M.I.A. and Santogold as notable exceptions, Cudi believes that much hip hop lacks unique personality. “My music is about individuality. I would just like to see more personal records and a lot more individuality, artists having their own identity. That’s what music needs to be right now or we can’t take it to the next level.”

With a mixtape due out next month, an album slated for early 2009 and heavy touring in between, Cudi is determined to take the genre’s audience to that next level, one punter at a time. “Some people just need proof that it’s real, some people are always on the fence. But I feel like, in due time, we’ll get them off and people will realise it’s a movement.”

Thanks to Canberra Times for the interview, catch Kid Cudi at the following shows…

Thu July 3: Brisbane – UBER
Fri July 4 : Melbourne – Roxanne Parlour
Sat July 5: Canberra – Exposed @ Transit Bar
Sunday July 6: Sydney – Sounds On Sunday