Kid Cudi

Kid Cudi
Background information
Birth name Scott Ramon Seguro Mescudi
Born January 30, 1984 (1984-01-30) (age 28)
Cleveland, Ohio, United States
Genres Alternative hip hop, alternative rock, neo-psychedelia
Occupations Rapper, singer-songwriter, guitarist, actor
Instruments Vocals, guitar, drums
Years active 2003–present
Labels GOOD, Universal Republic,[1] Wicked Awesome
Associated acts WZRD, Dot da Genius, Kanye West, Chip tha Ripper, Ratatat
Website www.KidCudi.com

Scott Ramon Seguro Mescudi[2] (born January 30, 1984 in Cleveland, Ohio),[3] better known by his stage name Kid Cudi ( /ˈkɪd ˈkʌdi/ kid kud-ee), sometimes stylized KiD CuDi, is an American alternative hip hop recording artist, singer-songwriter, guitarist and actor. He first gained major attention after the release of his debut mixtape A Kid Named Cudi. In 2009, his single "Day 'n' Nite" reached the top five of the Billboard Hot 100 and Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs charts. "Day 'n' Nite" was included on Cudi's debut album Man on the Moon: The End of Day, which was later certified Gold . Kid Cudi has sold over 4.6 million digital singles and has worked with Kanye West, Common, David Guetta and other artists signed to the GOOD Music label.[4] In 2010 he released his second studio album Man on the Moon II: The Legend of Mr. Rager, preceded by the release of two singles "Erase Me" and "Mr. Rager". In October 2010, Cudi announced that he would be forming a rock band with Dot da Genius tentatively called 'Wizard', later renamed WZRD. Their self-titled debut album will be released on Cudi's 28th birthday, January 30, 2012.

Contents

Biography

1984-2008: Early life and career beginnings

Kid Cudi was born in Cleveland, Ohio and grew up in Shaker Heights and Solon.[5] His father, a house painter, substitute teacher and World War II Air Force veteran was Mexican-Native American, while his mother, a middle-school choir teacher at Roxboro Middle School, in Cleveland Heights, Ohio, is African-American.[6][7] When he was eleven years old, Mescudi's father died of cancer; his passing would have a significant effect on Mescudi's personality and subsequently his music.[7] Mescudi attended Shaker Heights High School for two years, then transferred to Solon High School, and later earned his GED. Eventually, Mescudi studied film at the University of Toledo then dropped out after a year.[5]

It was towards the end of high school that Mescudi first began rapping, inspired by alternative hip hop groups such as The Pharcyde and A Tribe Called Quest.[7] He moved to Brooklyn in New York City to pursue a music career.[2] In July 2008, Kid Cudi released his first mixtape, A Kid Named Cudi, in collaboration with New York street-wear brand 10.Deep as a free download.[8] The mixtape quickly caught the attention of Kanye West, which in turn spawned his signing to GOOD Music later that year.

Kid Cudi was featured on Kanye West's 2008 album, 808s & Heartbreak, singing with West on the track "Welcome to Heartbreak", and helping with songwriting on "Heartless" and "Paranoid". "Welcome to Heartbreak" peaked at #87 on the Pop 100,[9] and music videos for both songs have been released. Cudi was then tipped as an artist to watch for in media such as Rolling Stone, Vibe, The Source, XXL and BBC News's Sound of 2009 poll of up-and-coming acts.[10] MTV News also reported on Cudi on a series of reports MCs To Watch In 2009.[11]

His first television appearance was at the 2008 MTV Video Music Awards, alongside Travis Barker and DJ AM. On February 17, 2009, he appeared on Snoop Dogg's MTV talk show Dogg After Dark performing "Day 'n' Nite" at the end of the show. Two days later on February 19, 2009, Cudi appeared on BET's 106 & Park with Kanye West to debut the video of "Day 'n' Nite". On March 16, 2009 Kid Cudi performed on mtvU's Spring Break special, and the next day he performed three songs on NBC's Last Call with Carson Daly. He has also appeared as a musical guest on The Late Show with David Letterman and Jimmy Kimmel Live!.

Kid Cudi also made a cameo appearance next to Solange in the video for the song "T.O.N.Y." in February 2009, and later in The Black Eyed Peas' video for "I Gotta Feeling", with David Guetta. He has also been on two magazine covers, Complex (August/September 2009) and URB (August 2009). Bape awarded Cudi his own t-shirt in September 2009, in reward for his music and past employment there when living in New York City.

2009–2010: Man on the Moon series

Cudi's debut album Man on the Moon: The End of Day was released on Universal Motown Records on September 15, 2009[12] and sold 104,419 copies in the first week and charted at #4.[13] The album's lead single "Day 'n' Nite", Kid Cudi's greatest commercial success thus far, charted well both in the U.S. and in Europe. The second single was "Make Her Say" (originally titled "I Poke Her Face"), which features a sample from Lady Gaga's hit single "Poker Face" and performances by Kanye West and Common.[14][15]

On February 25, 2009, Cudi self-leaked a "teaser trailer" [16] for the upcoming Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen film using his song "Sky Might Fall" in the background, later he posted that he made the trailer himself and was in talks to possibly make it official.[17]

With Emile Haynie, Cudi produced an exclusive single called "Switchin Lanes" for the video game Midnight Club: Los Angeles, part of its "South Central Premium Upgrade" downloadable content (DLC) which came out March 19, 2009 for the PlayStation 3 and March 27, 2009 for the Xbox 360.[18]

He revealed information about his future plans via his blog, saying that a possible collaboration with Chip tha Ripper could be followed with a collaboration project with electrorock duo Ratatat.[19] During the summer of 2009, Cudi joined rapper Asher Roth for the Great Hangover concert tour.[20] Kid Cudi was featured on the highly anticipated Jay-Z album The Blueprint 3 (2009), on the song "Already Home".[21] In a late 2009 interview, Cudi announced that the follow-up to his debut album will be a collaboration album called Cudder and the Revolution of Evolution. He stated he has already recorded songs with Snoop Dogg, Travis Barker, Clipse, Cage and Pharrell and would also like to work with Drake, Green Day, Kings of Leon, Robin Thicke, The Killers and The Postal Service on the album. Also it was rumored that Man on the Moon: The End of Day will be followed up by a sequel titled Man on the Moon: The Ghost in the Machine and that the Man on the Moon will be a trilogy, but was not been confirmed.[22] Kid Cudi was nominated for three 2010 Grammy Awards for his singles, "Day 'n' Nite" and "Make Her Say".[23] Kid Cudi was featured on Snoop Dogg's re-release of Malice n Wonderland, More Malice (2010), on the song "That Tree",[24] as well as teaming up with Johnny Polygon to remix Polygon's "The Riot Song" which appears on his mixtape, Rebel Without Applause(2010)[25] On April 20, 2010, Kid Cudi announced that the name of his second album has been changed from Cudder and the Revolution of Evolution to Man on the Moon II: The Legend of Mr. Rager.[26][27] On June 11, 2010, Kid Cudi was arrested in the Chelsea neighborhood of the Manhattan borough New York City and charged with felony criminal mischief and possession of a controlled substance.[28] Despite his arrest, he was released and made it to Manchester, Tennessee in time to play at Bonnaroo.

The lead single for Cudi's second studio album titled "Erase Me" featuring Kanye West and produced by Jim Jonsin, debuted on a Cleveland radio station June 30, 2010 and was officially released to Rhythm/Crossover radio on August 17, 2010.[29][30][31][32] The album debuted at number three on the US Billboard 200 chart, with first-week sales of 169,000 copies.[33] In its second week it crossed the 200,000 sales mark.[34] 2010 also featured Kid Cudi on a number of songs for Kanye West's weekly free music giveaway G.O.O.D. Fridays appearing on "Good Friday", "Christian Dior Denim Flow" and "The Joy", which later became a bonus track on Jay-Z and Kanye West collaborative effort Watch the Throne (2011).

2011-present: New direction and WZRD

In October 2010, Cudi announced that he would be forming a rock band with Dot da Genius tentatively called 'Wizard'.[35] However, in early 2011, he announced that he would be releasing a mixtape prior to the rock album.[36] On February 26, 2011 Cudi took to his Twitter account to announce that Dream On, the record label he launched back in 2009 with partners Patrick “Plain Pat” Reynolds and producer Emile Haynie, has been dissolved.[37] However in an interview with Complex Magazine he explained they were still on good terms: "I wanted to try something new, and I wanted to take control of things myself. Those are still my guys, Pat and Emile, and I'm still going to work with them in the future. When we start working on Man on the Moon III I’ll be calling them up to see if they want to be a part of it. I know Emile is definitely down. We had an issue, but we’re men and we were able to figure it out and move forward. There’s no hard feelings."[38]

In March 2011, Cudi announced that a music video for "Marijuana" will be released in the spring,[39] followed by a music video for "Mr. Rager" in the summer of 2011.[39] As well as a short film inspired by his song "Maniac" with Cage, directed by Shia LaBeouf[40] will be released in October 2011.[39]

In April 2011, while performing at New York City’s Roseland Ballroom Kid Cudi announced name of the record label he is launching. The new label, which he will be releasing his third studio album on is called “Wicked Awesome Records”. He also renamed his band on the same occasion to '2 Be Continuum' renaming it from the original 'Wizard'. Kid Cudi explained his reasoning saying: "I needed something more original, something different, but it’s still wizardry at its finest."[41] On August 12, 2011, Kid Cudi released the music video for "No One Believes Me", directed by Fright Night director Craig Gillespie. Although the song was recorded as a collaborative song with Dot da Genius, the single was released under Kid Cudi's name.[42] On August 21, Cudi announced that he is no longer releasing the mixtape A Man Named Scott so that he can focus on his rock project and his third solo album Man on the Moon III.[43] Kid Cudi released a video for Man on the Moon II: The Legend of Mr. Rager's title track "Mr. Rager" on September 8, 2011. The video has received all-positive reviews from critics and fans alike.[44]

Despite saying he will not do many more features for other artists in Complex magazine's October/November 2011 cover story,[45] he appeared on Bryan Greenberg's second studio album We Don't Have Forever (2011), Travis Barker's Give the Drummer Some (2011), The Knux's Eraser (2011), and Wale's Ambition (2011) respectively.

On October 30, Cudi released the Maniac, a short horror film co-starring Cage and directed by Shia LaBeouf, through his blog.[46]

On November 13, 2011, a previously unreleased mixtape of material Cudi had recorded from 2002-2003 titled Rap Hard was released. On November 18, 2011 renamed his band, for the second time to 'WZRD'.[47] He also announced that the upcoming rock project will be released on his 28th birthday, January 30, 2012.

In late 2011, Cudi was mentioned in a viral video by Ben Breedlove about his near death experiences. [48] After Breedlove's death on December 26, 2011, Cudi commented on his thoughts about inspiring the young kid. "I am so sad about Ben Breedlove," Kid Cudi wrote on his Tumblr blog. "I watched the video he left for the world to see, and him seeing me in detail, in his vision really warmed my heart. I broke down, I am to tears because I hate how life is so unfair. This has really touched my heart in a way I cant describe, this is why I do what I do. Why I write my life, and why I love you all so much. Life is really f---- up sometimes, but I know Ben is at Peace, and I hope he gets a chance to sit and talk with my Dad. We love you Ben. Forever. Thank you for loving me. To Ben’s family, you raised a real hero, he’s definitely mine. You have my love."

Acting career

Kid Cudi is currently starring in the new HBO comedy series How to Make It in America, produced by Mark Wahlberg, He is credited under his real name.[49]

Discography

Studio albums
Collaboration albums
Mixtapes

Awards and nominations

Filmography

Film
Year Film Role Notes
2011 MANIAC Serial killer Short film
Television
Year Title Role Notes
2010 – 2011 How to Make It in America Domingo Brown Major supporting role

References

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  2. ^ a b Birchmeier, Jason (2009). "Kid Cudi > Biography". allmusic. http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=11:wcfqxzu5ldte~T1. Retrieved 2009-05-22. 
  3. ^ Kid Cudi (February 2, 2009). "we baackkkkkkkk". KidCudi.com. http://www.kidcudi.com/news/we-baackkkkkkkk-848.html. Retrieved March 20, 2010. 
  4. ^ Wolgamott, Kent (July 7, 2011). "What You Need to Know About Kid Cudi". JournalStar.com. http://journalstar.com/entertainment/music/article_f5e55616-abe0-5b71-b2d6-61a138c22929.html. Retrieved July 7, 2011. 
  5. ^ a b Soeder, John (June 27, 2009). "Before he became the most buzzed-about rookie in the music business, Kid Cudi was a kid from Cleveland with big dreams". The Plain Dealer. Archived from the original on May 13, 2011. http://www.webcitation.org/5yeiitIX3. 
  6. ^ Smith, Angelique (2009-03-10). "Kid Cudi's Not-So-Dark Alter Ego Revealed!". MTV Newsroom (MTV News). http://newsroom.mtv.com/2009/03/10/kid-cudis-not-so-dark-alter-ego-revealed/. Retrieved 2009-09-13. 
  7. ^ a b c Hoard, Christian (17 September 2009), "Kid Cudi: Hip-Hop's Sensitive Soul", Rolling Stone (1087): p. 40, http://datnewcudi.com/2009/09/14/rolling-stone-kid-cudi-hip-hops-sensitive-soul/ 
  8. ^ 10.Deep Presents: Kid Cudi – "A Kid Named Cudi Mixtape"
  9. ^ "Billboard Pop 100 Chart Positions". Billboard. http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/esearch/chart_display.jsp?cfi=396&cfgn=Singles&cfn=Pop+100&ci=3103250&cdi=10060886&cid=12%2F13%2F2008. Retrieved 2009-01-09. 
  10. ^ "BBC Sound of 2008: The longlist". BBC News. 2008-12-05. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7758169.stm. Retrieved 2009-01-01. 
  11. ^ Roberts, Steven (2009-01-08). "Kid Cudi". MCs To Watch In 2009 (MTV News). http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1602354/20090108/kid_cudi.jhtml. Retrieved 2009-08-28. 
  12. ^ Kid Cudi: Man On The Moon Released
  13. ^ Jay-Z Tops Album Sales Two Weeks In A Row
  14. ^ Reid, Shaheem (2009-05-27). "Kanye West 'Inspired' By Lady Gaga's 'Face' For Kid Cudi Single". Mixtape Daily (MTV News). http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1612265/20090527/west_kanye.jhtml. Retrieved 2009-08-28. 
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  18. ^ "Midnight Club: Los Angeles South Central DLC Kid Cudi Exclusive". Rockstar Games. http://www.rockstargames.com/midnightclubLA/southcentral/. 
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  21. ^ "Blueprint 3 Track-List" (mdy). Pitchfork Media. http://pitchfork.com/news/36262-jay-zs-iblueprint-3i-the-tracklist/. Retrieved 2009-08-19. 
  22. ^ Kid Cudi Interview with Honey Magazine – Dat New 'Cudi'. Datnewcudi.com (2009-08-25). Retrieved on 2011-04-26.
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  24. ^ Kid Cudi Featured on Snoop Dogg’s “More Malice”
  25. ^ Kid Cudi Featured on Johnny Polygon's "Riot Song"
  26. ^ Kid Cudi (April 20, 2010). "Lend Me Your Eyesssss". KidCudi.com. http://www.kidcudi.com/news/lend-me-your-eyesssss-1561.html. Retrieved April 24, 2010. 
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  31. ^ "Radio Industry News, Music Industry Updates, Arbitron Ratings, Music News and more!". FMQB. http://www.fmqb.com/Article.asp?id=16691. Retrieved 2011-11-24. 
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  37. ^ "Kid Cudi Splits With Manager, Launching New Label". 2011-02-27. http://rapfix.mtv.com/2011/02/27/kid-cudi-splits-with-manager-launching-new-label/. Retrieved 2011-10-17. 
  38. ^ "Kid Cudi: Puzzling (2011 Cover Story)". Complex.com. 2011-09-19. http://www.complex.com/music/2011/09/kid-cudi-puzzling-2011-cover-story/page/2. Retrieved 2011-10-17. 
  39. ^ a b c http://twitter.com/#!/wizardcud/status/44090919305224192
  40. ^ Roberts, Steven. (2010-11-05) Kid Cudi/ Shia LaBeouf Picture Leaks Online – Music, Celebrity, Artist News. MTV. Retrieved on 2011-04-26.
  41. ^ Kid Cudi Announces New Label & Band Name
  42. ^ No One Believes Me Amazon
  43. ^ "Cud Life: Mixtape". Cudlife.tumblr.com. 2010-05-25. http://cudlife.tumblr.com/post/9221598438/mixtape. Retrieved 2011-11-24. 
  44. ^ TheCommissionChannel (2011-09-08). "Kid Cudi - Mr Rager ( Music Video) RARE EDITION". YouTube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=psV5VtIEpOo. Retrieved 2011-11-24. 
  45. ^ "Kid Cudi: Puzzling (2011 Cover Story)". Complex.com. 2011-09-19. http://www.complex.com/music/2011/09/kid-cudi-puzzling-2011-cover-story/page/3. Retrieved 2011-10-17. 
  46. ^ "MANIAC Directed by Shia LaBeouf Starring Scott Mescudi and Chris Palko". 2011-10-30. https://twitter.com/#!/wizardcud/status/131129794153824256/. 
  47. ^ "Twitter / Scott Mescudi: News update! Me and @DotDa". Twitter.com. http://twitter.com/wizardcud/status/137538406992449536. Retrieved 2011-11-24. 
  48. ^ http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/kid-cudi-responds-ben-breedlove-video-farewell-shortly-teen-fan-died-heart-condition-article-1.998401
  49. ^ HBO. "Kid Cudi in How to Make it in America". http://www.hbo.com/how-to-make-it-in-america/cast-and-crew/domingo-brown/bio/scott-kid-cudi-mescudi.html. Retrieved March 7, 2010. 
  50. ^ Kid Cudi announces a Fall 2012 release of his 3rd studio album « Cud Life. Retrieved on 2011-07-13.
  51. ^ Petar Kujundzic (2011-11-18). "KiD CuDi announces release Date for new album and renames ’2 Be Continuum’". Hypetrak. http://hypetrak.com/2011/11/kid-cudi-talks-new-album-and-renames-2-be-continuum/. Retrieved 2011-11-24. 

External links