The rapper Kid Cudi called the ‘king of swag’: “Carried himself with confidence”
Kid Cudi has a reputation for being a stylish guy. Whether it’s his dress sense, creating an intergalactic world in his music, or simply smoking a cigarette, he always comes across as effortlessly cool. In that sense, one rapper arguably inspired him more than any other.
The Cleveland native was born in 1984 and spent much of his formative years listening to Biggie Smalls. Ready to Die was released when he was ten, with Life After Death dropping when he was 13. While everyone from Tupac Shakur to Snoop Dogg to Jay-Z influenced him, he thought The Notorious BIG originated swag.
“Biggie is the one of the first rappers that I was like, ‘Damn, this motherfucker has so much swag,'” he told Complex in 2012. “Swag didn’t exist, motherfuckers weren’t using it back then. But if they were using it, he would be the king of swag. Even today, Biggie is the king of swag. His whole shit was smooth: how he carried himself with that confidence, his storytelling abilities, and how he put together records.”
He added, “I remember going on road trips with my sister when Life After Death came out. Being from Cleveland, that motherfucking Bone and Biggie record just had me. To this day, that’s the Cleveland anthem. N*ggas get so bucked when that song comes on.”
Biggie may have impacted Cudi in how he carries himself, but also used him as the benchmark for storytelling raps. Alongside Jay-Z and Nas, he puts the Brooklyn rapper at the top of the pile regarding rappers fully developing a story on wax. Every time he goes into the studio to lay down a story verse, he makes sure he’s taking inspiration from Biggie.
“When I’m telling a story [in a song], I need to listen to some Biggie shit to make sure I’m doing it right,” he said. “That was somebody who I used to listen to who painted a lot of amazing stories just like Nas and Hov. I would literally sit back and listen to those guys with my sister and be like, ‘Man, this shit is wild.’ These are the go-to guys I went to when I wanted to learn about New York.
“I was growing up in Ohio. It’s a whole other ball game where I’m from. It was like, hip-hop is when motherfuckers would turn on the radio to listen to Green Hornet. I would listen to stories. That was what hip-hop was to me. I only search out the artists that had something to say, a story to tell. Biggie was one of those guys.”
‘Notorious Thugs’, the “Cleveland anthem,” is one of Cudi’s favourite songs, but little did he know he would go on to have issues with the song’s producer. Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs was accused of blowing up Cudi’s car over his relationship with Cassie, forcing him to testify in his sex trafficking trial that resulted in him being found guilty of transportation to engage in prostitution earlier this year.