Kid Cudi will be back very soon with his sixth album Speedin’ Bullet 2 Heaven but it won’t be as we know him. Or maybe it will.
You see, to describe Kid Cudi you can’t say he’s a hip-hop artists and leave it at that. He is a rapper, songwriter, musician, and producer and he uses all these talents to create his music. His early albums Man on the Moon and Man on the Moon II utilised his rapping and production skills but there was always something different about Cudi that set him apart. His songs were able to hit upon emotion that other artists like him couldn’t.
As a results his fan base grew and grew. Then, for his third album he formed the rock band WZRD and unleased music that much more instrument based and something his fans hadn’t heard from him before. He even covered Nirvana on the record. Some liked the experimentation, others wanted more of the same of his first two records. Either way, Cudi was taking risks and experimenting with his sound, something a lot of contemporary artists are afraid to do.
His third solo album Indicud harked back to his previous albums but was significantly more upbeat and positive, and seemed to embrace the fact Cudi was learning to be proud of himself.
https://youtu.be/KrbyNGVvgqY
His fifth album Satellite Flight: The Journey To Mother Moon was very much an album for himself and was a mixture of styles from highly produced to acoustic instrumentation. It was released digitally with little to no promotion except to his existing fans.
Now, with over 10 million followers on social media he will release Speedin’ Bullet 2 Heaven in December, and has stated it includes some of the work he is most proud of. It promises to be more similar to WZRD in style and Cudi plays all the guitar and bass himself as well as writing the songs and heading up production. From what we’ve heard so far it sounds grungy and far removed from anything he’s done before, but it should also come as no surprise considering the diversity of his career so far. True fans will follow him wherever he takes them but his varying styles will open the door for new fans to discover him and it’s a clever decision for him to branch out.
https://youtu.be/t4iRE-cmA7w
He’s announced that the third instalment of the Man on the Moon albums will follow this release, so if fans are hoping for another trip back to his early sounds they might get it after all. Meanwhile new and old fans alike can grab his new album on December 4.
What period of Kid Cudi’s career do you most enjoy?