I’m rooting for the erstwhile Scott Mescudi. Between the appearance on 808s & Heartbreak and last year’s A Kid Named Cudi, he’s flashed enough potential to justify the hype. Plus, he has several things working in his favor: a Kanye co-sign, ability to both sing and rap, a single that has received radio burn, and a Crookers remix that went viral.
Cudi’s Man on the Moon: The Guardians is slated to drop on G.O.O.D./Fool’s Gold sometime this summer, but his odds of stardom remain opaque. The major labels have not consistently proven that they can create stars in the post-Internet world. If you look at the most popular artists to emerge over the last few years, they tend to skew Southern and all built fan bases prior to signing with a major: T.I., Ross, Jeezy, Plies. For every Lupe to germinate, there’s a Rhymefest, a Clipse, a Knux, a Murs, who struggled to sell 50k.
Still, in a rap world continually obsessed with chimerical coketasias, we could use more stoner anthems. Cudi’s ceiling might be Lupe, but at least you’d want to smoke a blunt with him.
Download:
MP3: Kid Cudi-”Day ‘N’ Nite”
MP3: Kid Cudi ft. Wale-”Look Up in Da Stars”
See Also:
Video-Kid Cudi & Kanye West on 106th & Park
Video-Kanye West ft. Kid Cudi-”Welcome to Heartbreak”
8 comments
Tray says:
February 22, 2009 at 12:54 am (UTC -7)
Yeah, I think Cudi will do better than Rhymefest or Murs for the simple reason that he’s actually fun to listen to, has a hit single that’s played on both rap and pop radio, has fans who have never heard of Brother Ali, is liked by both FADER and Jim Jones – and as for his ceiling being Lupe, I don’t think they’re similar at all, Lupe’s technically far more gifted but pedantic as fuck, Cudi’s talent is pretty questionable but he’s likeable.
brandonsoderberg says:
February 22, 2009 at 2:57 pm (UTC -7)
Is this song REALLY on the radio? I hear radio in Baltimore and North Carolina and none of them rap stations in either place are giving this play.
Passion of the Weiss says:
February 22, 2009 at 3:16 pm (UTC -7)
Definitely–it’s currently 14th most played on Power 106, LA’s biggest urban station–which means it’s played almost every hour. At Hot 97, the remix with Jim Jones is currently at #2.
brandonsoderberg says:
February 22, 2009 at 5:59 pm (UTC -7)
Good to know! That’s crazy to think about and crazier in terms of how disparate super-corporatized radio markets still are in certain ways.
Tray says:
February 22, 2009 at 7:57 pm (UTC -7)
What??? I was just bullshitting (as always) and had only heard it once on the radio, although I’ve kinda stopped listening to the radio on account of “Rockin That Thang”/having Niggaz4life on repeat for the past three weeks. That is good to know.
DocZeus says:
February 23, 2009 at 12:41 pm (UTC -7)
I don’t know if I should be salty about Mr. Mescudi proving that you can, in fact, be a rap star from Shaker Heights, Ohio or excited that it’s totally possible. Either way, I think I abandoned my ill-fated rap career way too early.
jason says:
February 23, 2009 at 2:13 pm (UTC -7)
I dunno Jeff. This kid can’t rap, can barely sing, and the only this he has going for him is the KanYe co-sign, which might not really work in his favor. I heard he’s douche too. He might have the most appeal of these new emo-hiptsers, or whatever you want to call them, but as far as talent, Blu, Wiz, Wale, Drake ….. the list could go on.
shabooty says:
February 26, 2009 at 12:34 am (UTC -7)
yeah ill go with cudi over wale.
=)