TSS Presents Fifteen Minutes With Kid CuDi

"Fifteen Minutes With..."    By TSSCrew on February 2, 2009 at 2:43 pm

Killing time at the Highline Ballroom in NYC, I had just completed the interview portion of a Wale assignment. Surprisingly on-schedule, Scott Mescudi, better known by his stage name KiD CuDi, strides in with his crew for soundcheck. Just as I imagined a member of G.O.O.D. Music would be adorned, the “Day N Nite” rapper is dressed in a bright red ski vest, matching red Ushanka, slim denims and black/red Jordan IV’s.

I anticipate pretension, but needing a short quote or two to prop up the Wale piece, I saunter over to Plain Pat with a request to quickly speak to CuDi. He obliges and the protege & I head over to a table at a quiet corner of the venue to conduct an impromptu interview. Speed-typing away on his phone as we begin, I initially sense disinterest. Revealing his mastery of multitasking, he keeps both convos going strong, unrestrained as he opens up. Just as I imagine how his mentor Kanye was back in the day, CuDi’s simply a cool, regular-ass nigga.

TSS: You’ve said that you had the vision for your album Man on the Moon: The Guardian for some time. What exactly is that vision?

KiD CuDi: Well, I always wanted to make an album that was cinematic in nature as far as how it feels. When you go to the movies, and you watch like a drama or something, you can just close your eyes and feel the music—feel the movie—just through the emotion in the orchestra and the score of the film. And I want to bring that same emotion and same power into my music. I want it to be like you’re listening to a movie but without watching it. I’m trying to bring that same intensity so I’ve always had the vision to do a very cinematic album in nature since day one because I feel like no one has ever done that before. People have attempted and there have been hints of film references in music but to really effectively execute it, that hasn’t been done yet and I really wanna execute it properly.

TSS: So in reference to that, what’s the story behind the title?

KiD CuDi: It’s my birth and growing up, realizing my destiny, my journey, and internal issues that I deal with. A lot of self-conflict on the album. It’s a storyline but not so much. I think if you give the listener too much of a guideline, it doesn’t leave room for imagination. I want to leave it somewhat vague but at the same time keep it on track with the mood of each song.

TSS: T.I. and Luda are superstars and they had their album release parties here [at the Highline Ballroom] in NY, not ATL. Does NY still have to be won over?

KiD CuDi: Well, I feel like you have to win over everybody. It’s not just this town or that town, you gotta win over everyone and that’s what it’s all about. And in order to win over those people, you gotta win them over on a natural level,the organic level, because—I tell people this all the time—the kids are smarter nowadays. They know when some bullshit is gettin’ fed to them and they know when it’s organic.

TSS: How would you characterize this new wave of emcees coming into the game?

KiD CuDi: We’re just a little more open-minded. Everything’s been done and we’re really trying hard to make names for ourselves in this industry and change the game. We just don’t wanna be artists in the game. They’re some rappers that are just in the game, taking up fucking space—Billboard chart numbers (Laughs). We don’t wanna be just another number in the game. We wanna be that motherfucker. Everybody wants to have an impact—the Jay-Z impact, the Kanye impact, the Nas impact. Even Ludacris had an impact. T.I. had an impact. You know these guys. You know their names, you know their faces, they’re vets in the game. Even Jeezy. You know these people—these are motherfuckers who stand out. We wanna be those niggas who stand out. Not even on the fact of just wanting to stand out, we all just really, really wanna change music in some way, shape, or form. You can ask any of us that was on the XXL cover and all of us will say, ‘Yes, we wanna change the music in some way, shape, or form.’ All of us have that goal.

TSS: Is putting on for Cleveland also one of your goals?

KiD CuDi: That’s like my main goal—to make sure Cleveland is ok because we need something like that. Cleveland needs hope. As a town, Cleveland is really hurtin’ right now and they need something to lift their spirits up—something positive. Obama is like the perfect thing. Right now, that change is really coming to all lanes.

TSS: Even with LeBron around, how is Cleveland down right now?

KiD CuDi: Just financially, just how things are. We’re in a recession and Cleveland already had the highest poverty rate the last couple of years in the entire nation. So, I really feel like people need something more uplifting.

TSS: It’s clear…

KiD CuDi: Oh, my man Chip The Ripper, too. He’s next out of Cleveland for sure. He’s pretty much part of my movement. We’re gonna do an album together after my first album. We’re still working on a name for our group, but it’s gonna be a duo—me and him. We might even put out a mixtape first, show people what we all about and then do a full-length album. But I’m definitely trying to let people know about Chip because I personally… I know for a fact—this is a fact—that Chip The Ripper will be a face in Hip-Hop that everyone will remember for years and years. I know that he’s gonna be one of those greats. One of those legends in the game.

TSS: Why do you say that?

KiD CuDi: Because lyrically, I haven’t heard anything like it. He’s just so dope at what he does.

TSS: For someone like myself unfamiliar with Chip, who would you compare him to?

KiD CuDi: Well, I don’t like comparing motherfuckers, but he’s in a league of his own. Even if I had to, I couldn’t compare him next to anybody. I only fuck with niggas like that. But his voice is very reminiscent of Rick Ross/8Ball. His tone is like a combination of those dudes, but his flows are so much wittier. Don’t put that I said Chip The Ripper is better than Rick Ross (Laughs).

TSS: The vibe I get from you is that you don’t fit the mold of a “street dude” and a lack of street credibility can hold back any new rapper. Are there “hood” aspects to KiD CuDi we otherwise wouldn’t know about?

KiD CuDi: I don’t like to be labeled as anything. I just like to consider myself a well-rounded person if I had to label myself anything. To say someone is “hood”, I think that word is just given a bad connotation. I have been through a struggle. Everybody goes through a struggle at some point. So I do know about living in the ghetto. Like, I don’t even say “‘hood.” “Hood” makes it sound cool. There’s nothing cool about the ghetto and that’s just real talk. I’ve lived in the ghetto—I know what it is. I grinded in the ghetto out here in New York. Coming from middle-class suburbs and coming to that, I just saw both sides of the spectrum.

Where I grew up, it was bad, but it wasn’t “bad.” When I came to New York, I really witnessed the struggle. I witnessed the hood in Cleveland but I wasn’t living in the hood. I wasn’t living in the ghetto. But when I came to New York, I witnessed the shit for some years. And kids out here embraced me. I knew niggas from back home from the ghetto like Chip from down the way and all the cats from Cleveland. It was always about, ‘Aww, this dude from this part of town so we don’t fuck with him.’ People always used to assume if you lived in a certain part of town, you was this type of person.

But I think at this point, we see otherwise with me. When you see me, when you talk to me, I’m not trying to play no tough guy role and I’m not trying to be anything I’m not, I’m just me. I’m a really silly, goofy dude at the end of the day. I like everyone around me to be happy. I like to keep positive vibes around me. But nah, there’s no “hood” to me, but there is struggle.

(Interrupted by a phone call)

There’s some realness. I know the street, but I don’t know it inside out. I didn’t run the streets, but I have lived in the struggle. And if anything, it took me to go through that shit to get where I’m at right now. I had to go through that—live in those ghettos and grind and see that type of shit. It makes me more humble now, made me look at motherfuckers different. It made me more well-rounded. I think that’s why niggas fuck with me all around, from the suburbs to the hood because I am the persona of all things, of all walks of life—that’s how well rounded I am. I’m the persona of a human being I’m sure everybody knows all rolled in one.

TSS: What were your movements in NY before settling down in Brooklyn?

KiD CuDi: I moved to East New York—that was the first place I lived in Brooklyn and that was for two years. And then I lived in Bed Stuy. And now I live in Bushwick. But I lived in the Bronx for eight months—163rd and 3rd Avenue, the South Bronx—and then I moved from there to Staten Island. I lived on Alaska Street off of Richmond Terrace. Shaolin, what up! I was in every fuckin’ hood (Laughs). I lived everywhere and everywhere I went, motherfuckers showed me so much love that’s why I love New York, man. I came out here on the grizzle and motherfuckers showed me so much support, man. I got fam out in Staten Island, fam out in the Bronx, fam all over, man. Niggas just fuck with me.

I just ran into a dude from the Bronx at the airport. He was mad cool. Nigga wasn’t approachin’ me about no demo or nothin’. He was just like, ‘Man, I fucked with your shit. My cousin fucked with your shit.’ One of his homeboys put him on to my shit and he said he put everybody on to my shit in the hood and they support me and all this. I’m like, ‘Word, that’s some real shit.’

Honestly, I didn’t think the hood would understand. I didn’t think the hood would understand because I was being ignorant. I was being ignorant and naïve. I felt like all the hood wanted to hear was “shoot ‘em up bang-bang.” In reality, they don’t just all wanna hear that. They wanna hear some different shit, too, just like everybody else. That was ignorant of me to think that and it was a reality check to start meeting motherfuckers who tell me, “The hood fuck with you CuDi.” I be like, “Word, that shit is the ill shit.” Like Jim Jones jumpin’ on “Day N Nite.” He connected with that shit in some way, shape, or form and we’re from two walks of life. That’s an example right there—Example A.

For more info, check out www.myspace.com/kidcudi.

Posted in "Fifteen Minutes With...", ARTIST INTERVIEWS, GENERAL — Tags: "Fifteen Minutes With...", "FIFTEEN MINUTES WITH...", Chip Tha Ripper, G.O.O.D. Music, K.i.D. CuDi, Kanye West