Kid Cudi on the unusual rock album he loves: “This shit has got to be before its time”
From a small town in Ohio to the top of the charts, Kid Cudi has been one of the most exciting alternative hip-hop artists of the past 15 years. With an extraordinary ability to fuse genres and create mesmerising visuals to accompany his music, the lyricist set a precedent for other MCs.
Akin to musicians such as Tyler, The Creator and Childish Gambino, Cudi’s material doesn’t quite align with the standard sonic of rap music, yet he is still embraced and loved within the culture.
Cudi’s material is unique and draws on so many different styles it is impossible to label it. It merely exists. However, his sound hasn’t come from nowhere. The emcee has a range of influences.
Rappers are usually exposed to a lot of African-American music growing up. From soul to funk and gospel, it usually results in a hegemony of material. However, some artists, such as Lil Uzi Vert and Lil Wayne, who love Marilyn Manson and Nirvana, respectively, explore much farther afield.
That said, while on a musical journey, Kid Cudi also found himself enthralled by the rhythm of rock. In 2012, the ‘Day ‘n’ Nite’ musician spoke to Complex magazine about some of his biggest influences from the genre.
After forming the alternative rock-inspired duo WZRD with his friend and longtime collaborator Dot Da Genius, Kid Cudi went back in time to listen to some of the most iconic bands and guitarists for inspiration. One figure who stimulated Cudi’s creative senses was ’Purple Haze’ musician Jimi Hendrix.
Opening up about his appreciation of Hendrix’s art, Cudi unveiled ‘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. It definitely inspired a lot of Man On The Moon, MOTM2, and the WZRD project.”
The Insano creator detailed how he first began to embrace Hendrix during the making of his debut album, stating, “Jimi was somebody who I was getting into [during the making of] Man On The Moon. 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.”
Are You Experienced? was a product of the 1960s. However, the rock album that Cudi loved the most is the 1979 project, ELO’s Greatest Hits by The Electric Light Orchestra. Recounting how he first heard Electric Light Orchestra, Cudi told Complex, “I stumbled upon ELO because I had a greatest hits CD from them. I was listening to it and I remember being like, ‘This shit has to be before its time.’ When it came out, people were like, ‘What the fuck is this?’”
He continued, “The instrumentation immediately inspired me. That sound that hasn’t been around in a long time…It completely inspired me to want to do WZRD because I remember listening and loving how they combined electric guitar with the strings and how it sounded so beautiful. I wanted to kind of recreate that sound but with my own energy behind it. That’s ultimately what WZRD is supposed to be, A Kid Cudi-erized version of ELO.”