Beginning his career around 19 years ago in 2003, Kid Cudi is one of the most revered alternative hip hop artists in music today. From early in his career, Kid Cudi set himself apart from other rappers by the way he presented himself and his music. Creating and curating every project as an exciting work of art as opposed to just murder music meant he didn’t fit the traditional hip hop mould, which is why he was so quickly noticed.
Born and raised in the quiet mid-western state of Ohio, in 2005, Cudi (real name Scott Mescudi) moved to New York in order to pursue music and lived with his uncle while he was there. Having already recorded a demo tape, Cudi survived day to day by working in Manhattan’s retail sector and ended up moving out of his uncle’s to live with a producer he met while in New York named Dot da Genius.
After meeting Kanye West by chance at a Virgin record shop and giving him his demo in 2006, Mescudi was holding out for a record deal. However, that never happened. He ended up seeing Kanye again in 2007 while working at a BAPE store in Manhattan. However, again nothing happened.
In late 2008, after uploading his single ‘Day ‘N’ Nite’ to MySpace, Cudi was featured as an exciting up-and-coming artist on several music blogs. Word about Cudi quickly got to Kanye, and shortly after in 2009, West decided to sign Cudi to his Def Jam imprint G.O.O.D Music.
Although it wasn’t the original, the ‘Day N Nite’ (Crookers Remix) reached number two on the UK singles chart and and entered the top ten in other European countries, including Belgium, the Netherlands and France. This was Europe’s introduction to Kid Cudi, and it opened the door for fans to explore more of his early music.
The music video for ‘Day N Nite’ (Crookers Remix) is extremely funny and tells the story of a 24hr convenience store worker hallucinating after smoking some weed while on the job. A must-watch below, you can watch some rare behind-the-scenes footage as well as the music video.
