“I tried to tell all my friends when I was a kid that I had powers, and nobody wanted to believe me”. Powerful words from the self proclaimed Lord of the Sad and Lonely himself, Kid Cudi. No matter what you may think of his rapping or singing, one thing is for sure, he has a very interesting way of telling his story and coming from a very emotional place. For those that have followed his constant evolution his latest offering, “Indicud” (which you can stream in full below) will still be an interesting musical ride. And for those that haven’t been following him through every phase this is a great place to pick up no matter where you left off.
First he was the man on the moon, then he was Mr. Rager, then he was the WZRD, now he has drawn from all of those beings to become a new version of dope he calls “Indicud”. “Indicud” is his own play on words for what most of know as the marijuana body high known as Indica. In his own words the project started out just as him learning how to make his own beats and just took off with a mind of it’s own. In thee wild world of music I like to consider every album a film, the producers are the directors and the song writers/artists are the actors. In this case we get to witness Cudi self produce and write every song for a full album or act and direct every scene for an entire film. Hmmmmm could be scary right? The intro “The Resurrection of Scott Mescudi” starts us off on a very suspenseful note somewhere that sounds like a dark forest surrounded by crickets and the unknown. The drums appear and a wobbly bass walks in you are entranced for about 3 minutes of this tribal influenced instrumental. That instrumental leads us into a very warped bass driven stand out called ” Unfuckwittable” which sets the tone nicely. The next song “Just As I Am” is a smokers anthem, which features Chip The Ripper now known as King Chip (he SLAY’s the opening verse by the way) this was the first song I heard from the the project and sounded beyond amazing. The tripped out visuals are below.
What we soon come to find out from this project is that Cudi crafts the best “YOU SLEPT ON ME NOW F*CK YOU I’M ON” anthems since Mike Jones’ “Back Then” . Let me present to you exhibit A) “Kings Wizard”
And exihbit B) is the epic “Immortal” which is my favorite song on the the album!
If listened to closely “Immortal” contains an MGMT sample of a song called “Congratulations” reversed and begins with Adam Sandler as Billy Madison screaming “I am the smartest man alive!!” (genius). “Immortal” feels like you are listening to the origin story of a new fearless unknowing super hero of some kind, the moment he is struck by lightening and realizes that he actually survived the accident. I would love to see a video for this song.
The next song or scene my ears are drawn is the single man’s anthem “Girls feat. Too $hort”. Yea, you read that right the 47 year old Bay Area legend Too $hort! This song is about umm …yea, girls. Every color, size, race, foreign, domestic, skinny, thick, interesting type of possible he loves them all. I can relate. The collab is a very odd paring on paper but once you get into the feel of this one it’s the late night club jam anywhere in the world.
Next I am magnetically drawn to the very demented bright darkness of exhibit C) “Mad Solar”. The kick drum alone on this one is killer. Cudi somehow is able to take word for word everything I have been feeling the past two years by myself and put into one insane trip that lasts about 4 mins. There’s a certain level of thoughtfulness that is present on this song that really speaks to me. (Watch the live accapella version of the song Live on Jimmy Kimmel)
“Hard times they mold ya
Tell the haters ‘I told ya’
Let the world see how you win
No matter how you seem to them
F*ck ’em”
Word.
The features start rolling through on this section of the album with two guest verses from very suddenly relevant and always influential RZA of Wu Tang on the very grimy “Beez”. Which sets the table perfectly for the very G “Brothers (feat. King Chip & A$AP Rocky)” which finds Cudi in full melodic humming mode going in on one of rappers most popular topics right now, loyalty. A$AP comes through with a very good and fitting Kendrick Lamar and Bone Thugs impersonation which is undeniable (no idea is original man why be mad?).
That brings us to the very fearless “Cold Blooded” which features young Cudder going super saiyen. He even touches on the feelings of what drove him to leave Kanye’s G.O.O.D. music imprint. Everything about this track has a very raw energy driven by a very real hunger to succeed.
To directly quote cool cousin Cud
“Feeling way worthless
The lost black sheep of G.O.O.D. Music
Only good for a hook, huh?
Let me show you flows
Intuitive when it comes to many things I know
Cold
Most winters I would dream of being a winner
Feeling like less than shit to the doubters
Pain I promise to all who oppose my knowledge
My reign
The fucking essence of pain fuck rain
Standing in a monsoon of cool….”
Very real bars buried within the feel of feeling overlooked over and over and over coming it. The WZRD of emo strikes again!
As the album starts to find it’s way to the ending we are hit with a 9 minute twist in the form of “Afterwards (Bring Yo Friends) feat. Michael Bolton”. This is the most puzzling collaboration on and off paper I have seen since Tim McGraw and Nelly brought us “Over and Over”. It some how will grow on you I promise, wait I can’t promise that, I don’t know.Well it begins as a very very basic yet bouncy house drum beat, then brings in some very weird tropical froggy sounding synths, things get hilariously serious once Cudi’s new Uncle Michael Bolton appears and croons “Bring yo friends!” (fantastic). The song has about 3 completely different movements to it, and by the end you will have no idea what you felt, you just know you felt it.
“Indicud” is quite the acquired taste, but if you are interested enough to challenge your palet you will find a buffet of undeniable emotion running through every song. I would call it Soundtrack to every emotional loners who likes to sing home along in the mirror. Other highlights on the include the very melodic rock influenced jam “Young Lady (feat. Father John Misty)”, The old school cinematic feel of “Solo Dolo Pt. II (feat. Kendrick Lamar)”, ” and very early mixtape Cudi feel one verse heater “Burn Baby Burn” (you guys have no idea how much I love one verse songs these days! Sometimes you just hit everything on the nail in one swing ya know?). I do believe if the album was condensed to like 12 gems it could be more undeniable, because at some point he start’s competing against himself here. One thing is sure there is a real evolution we are witnessing with an already interesting artist. Cudi seems to have a knack for being a very relatable martian with a human simplicity, which is quite an oxymoron in itself.
He may not be on G.O.O.D. music, but no need to be afraid the music’s still G.O.O.D.
– d e f
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