Happy birthday Cudi!

Today is the birthday of Scott Ramon Seguro Mescudi, commonly referred to as Kid Cudi. He’s one of my favorite rappers oat and in my personal top 5. Here is a thread about his come up and some of his highlights.

Start

Kid Cudi was born on January 30, 1984 in Cleveland, Ohio. He is the youngest of 4 children. His musical career started during his time in high school, being inspired by alternative hip hop groups like a tribe called quest. Although he didn’t take music very serious then.

New York City

In 2004 Cudi moved to NYC to live with his uncle. This is where he started to take music seriously. In NYC he first worked at a bape store but his uncle unfortunately kicked him out due to frustration. As a result Cudi made the 5x platinum hit, “Day N Nite.”

Kanye West (1/2)

While working at the bape store Kid Cudi & Kanye West met for the first time. They then met again in 2006 at a record store and Cudi asked Ye to listen to some his music. Kanye refused. 2 years later in 2008, Cudi released ‘Day N Nite’ on his debut mixtape,

Kanye West (2/2)

“A kid named Cudi” this caught the eye of Kanye’s then manager, Plain Pat. Plain Pat showed some of Cudi’s music to Ye and from here Kanye West and Kid Cudi worked together. In 2008, Kid Cudi signed to Kanye West’s label “Good Music”

Growth

Subsequently, Kanye introduced Kid Cudi to Jay Z. At the start Cudi just created hooks for Hov but he was eventually allowed to work on “the blueprint 3” and even helped with Kanye’s “808s and heartbreak”. These 2 albums were a really big push in Cudi’s career.

Rise to stardom

From here Kid Cudi was noticed much more in the hip hop community (these are all prior to MOTM1)

- 2009 XXL freshman

- Complex cover

- Performed on/at
• Jimmy Kimmel
• David Letterman
• BET
• MTV

- Worked with
• Black Eyed Peas
• David Guetta

Trilogy (MOTM 1)

On September 4 2009, Cudi started his trilogy with “Man on the Moon: The End of day.” This was the beginning. He talked about his rise to fame and what he envisioned for his life. @common narrated it. This is my favorite project by him and a 10 imo.

MOTM 2

In the following year Cudi continued the trilogy and released “Man on the Moon II: The Legend of Mr. Rager.” In this album Cudi discusses his past addiction problems. It tells the story of someone turning ‘evil’ due to substance abuse. This is where we meet Mr. Rager.

MOTM 3

Just last year on December 11, 2020, Cudi released “Man on the Moon III: The Chosen”. MOTM3 portrays an internal struggle with himself against his alter ego, ‘Mr. Rager’ in hopes to regain his happiness. The cover is supposed to capture Cudi’s feelings during the project.

Kids see ghosts

On June 8 2018, Cudi and Ye released KSG. In this album they talk about mental health and acknowledge their past successes and failures. In “Freeee” you hear them talking about recovering from mental illness & in “reborn” you hear them talk about moving forward.

Musical awards

Cudi has been nominated for 23 big awards

- grammy’s (5)
- American music awards (1)
- BET (1)
- BET hip hop (7)
- beatport music (1)
- MTV (6)
- MTVU (1)
- teen choice (1)
- urban music (1)

And won 4

- grammy’s (2)
- urban music (1)
- beatport music (1)

End of thread

Cudi has been an influence in so many people’s lives and is a big part of why mental health is so important within the hip hop world today. He is an incredible artist and his music is more than just hip hop. I hope you liked this thread.