Kid Cudi 

 

Indicud

Republic Records

Street: 04.16

Kid Cudi = Kanye West + Wiz Khalifa 

Not masculine enough for gangsta rap, and not clever enough for backpack rap, Kid Cudi is akin to the middle school kid who discovered schwag, constantly reminding you that he loves weed. He removes all of the self-destructive wonder from drug use that rap, as a construct, has worked so hard to instill. He makes drugs lame, and that is a pretty tough thing to do. This is also Kid Cudi’s first venture in producing, and he has failed miserably: the beats are lackluster and seem to have been haphazardly thrown together. On “Young Lady”, the beats seem completely out of time with the Father John Misty sample and are completely distracting from the song’s ultra-lame chorus. For me, the highlight of the album is the track “Brothers” featuring A$AP Rocky: the beat is interesting and his verse is decent, and the mediocre A$AP verse is better than any other on the album. –Cody Hudson