Credit: Alamy

The trailblazing Kid Cudi has tried his hand at different genres throughout his career, with many rappers citing him as inspiration for their sound. But without the helpful hand of music legends before him, he might not be the artist he is today.

Following the release of his A Kid Named Cudi mixtape and signing to Kanye West, Cudi was tasked with releasing his debut album, Man on the Moon: The End of Day, in 2009. During the making of the project, the Cleveland rapper needed inspiration from somewhere, and it turned out to be the incomparable Jimi Hendrix.

“Jimi was somebody who I was getting into [during the making of] Man on the Moon,” he explained to Complex. “We started vibing out to that during that process of making the first album. With my projects, I look for some type of inspiration.

“I was looking for something that would help me take this shit to the next level, from mixtape to album. I needed to be inspired, and I really turned to Jimi, somebody I knew of but didn’t really get into his music until later on.”

Kid Cudi wasn’t exposed to rock and roll as a kid, so discovering Jimi Hendrix’s music later in life proved to by a life-changing event. The first song he ever heard from the legendary guitarist was ‘Hey Joe’, and the rest was history.

“I tell people this all the time: I was deprived of rock and roll for so long. So now, as an adult, I am jumping right into it,” he said. “It was the first one [I heard]. Hearing ‘Hey Joe’… I can’t explain it. That shit is so amazing. Those lyrics, how it was put together… I got up on shit a little bit late, but it stands the test of time, so it didn’t fucking matter. Jimi was somebody who was greater than what was going on at that time.”

His favourite Jimi Hendrix album is Are You Experienced, which inspired both Man on the Moon: The End of Day and Man on the Moon II: The Legend of Mr. Rager. Not only those but also his WZRD album with Dot Da Genius, which found him picking up the guitar himself.

“I love all his albums,” he said. “Saying ‘favourite albums’ is preposterous. Especially because of the artists that I listen to that have multiple releases, it’s really fucking tough. But if I had to choose one, I would choose his first one because I’d have to choose the one where it all started.”

He continued, “Are You Experienced was the first album of Jimi’s that I dove into, and I can say it inspired a lot of what Kid Cudi is today. It definitely inspired a lot of Man on the Moon, Man on the Moon II and the WZRD project. Are You Experienced was the first album of Jimi’s that I dove into, and I can say I inspired a lot of what Kid Cudi is today.”

Years later, Kid Cudi went on to release his divisive Speedin’ Bullet 2 Heaven album. Love it or hate it, he tried to do something different with elements of grunge and alternative rock, continuing his new-found love of playing the guitar with inspiration from the 1990s indie music scene.

Cudi admitted he was “hurting deeply” at that time in his life, with the album serving as a “cry for help” to anyone who would listen. “Speedin’ Bullet was a cry for help,” he said on social media. “I was literally screamin’ out to the world that I was hurting deeply and just wanted so badly to be understood.”