He predicted and subsequently fostered many of the dominant musical trends of the past decade, and even penned four songs (including hit singles “Heartless” and “Paranoid”) for 808s & Heartbreak, widely considered to be one of the most important records of the 21st century. He helped carry the commercial viability of synthetic textures into contemporary hip hop, expanding upon Ye’s Graduation formula to carve his own EDM-inflected niche in the Earth’s stratosphere. His meditations on cannabis and explorations of self, described by Jeff Weiss as “ sad robot rap ,” were endearing, wildly original, and shied away from the one-dimensional hyperbole that characterized the music of many of his peers.Ĭudi ultimately grew into his role as the principal curator of a moody subgenre of hip hop that has infiltrated and in many ways defined the scope of nearly everything that followed in the wake of his monstrous breakthrough.
He honed a unique and versatile toolkit that included multi-genre covers and a mix of rapping and crooning, all without pandering or showboating.
With Kanye’s cosign, Cudi became more than just the poster child of the blogwave era. None would go on to be more influential than Kid Cudi, a Cleveland native who went from being an underdog with zero career prospects to having Roc-A-Fella’s college dropout on speed dial.
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The business of rap music was rapidly evolving in accordance with the times, as a new crop of “viral” artists began building dedicated followings by releasing free mixtapes online. Physical media and the old ways of discovering artists were gradually being phased out by an interconnected network of blogs and social media sites like MySpace and YouTube. Looking back, it’s apparent that 2008 was a significant turning point for hip hop. The best of the best from music’s most beloved martian, Kid Cudi.