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Why Kid Cudi’s New Album Sucks

The Lonely Stoner has been getting way too baked on his new album, with 'Indicud' ending up coming across as a masturbatory exercise in self promotion for his label.

So it has been a pretty weird start to April for the Lonely Stoner, he first announced that he was leaving ‘Ye’s G.O.O.D. Music and then a few days later, his forthcoming Indicud leaked and divided the opinion of every die hard Cudi Stan. Half of the hazed-out forum trolls were calling it the "WOAT" (Worst Of All Time…zing!) whilst the rest defended an album that “isn’t actually as bad as I first thought.” Oh, and if you did hate on the album, Cudders officially hates you -

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its funny but the most hate on my album is all on datnewcudi…i think i officially hate some of those kids.fuck those kids

— Scott Mescudi (@ducidni) April 3, 2013

Yeah, fuck you kids! (Please keep buying my stuff though.)

But seriously, they might have a point. Without wanting to sound like every self-indulged fanboy constantly drooling over an artist's early work, the album just isn’t anywhere near the standard of Man on the Moon: The End of Day or Man on the Moon II: The Legend of Mr. Rager. Those albums were great in production, story telling and most importantly, Cudi hooks. Indicud isn’t necessarily a bad album, there are actually a lot of good tracks, the stand out being “Red Eye” featuring Haim, which could easily be an early contender for strongest collaboration this year. Otherwise, it just sounds like a record promoting his Wicked Awesome record label rather than himself as a solo artist.

Here’s why…

Leaving G.O.O.D.

Let’s take it back to Kid Cudi doing the unforgivable and leaving his “big brother forever”, aka. Kanye West, something that had apparently been on his mind six months before the departure. According to Cudi, he wanted to renew his focus on Wicked Awesome and fellow Cleveland native, King Chip, who may not be signed to the label but sure looks like he could be first on the roster. Now, I hear the reminders that Wicked Awesome has been around since 2011, but this is a project that has been on hold since working under G.O.O.D. Music and this album could be the perfect way to remind everyone about it.

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Promoting his features

We already know that Indicud is supposed to be Cudi’s take on Dre’s record label debut, The Chronic, but rather than sounding like a collaborative classic, a lot of the features stand out more than he does. Haim, RZA and King Chip carry “Red Eye”, “Beez” and “Brothers” respectively. Not to mention, “Afterwards”, which is essentially a nine-minute Michael Bolton song (yes, THAT Michael Bolton). The only track that failed in doing so was “Solo Dolo Part 2” featuring Kendrick Lamar, but you can hardly blame someone trying to promote a label for enlisting the most hyped rapper since A$AP Rocky. Oh, and guess what? A$AP is on the record too (double hype!) By audibly shoving these artists to the forefront, Cudi only confirms that he is able to collaborate with a huge range of artists and make them sound really, really good. And who wouldn’t want to sign to a label that can do that?

Kid Cudi produced the entire album.

If that isn’t his way of force-feeding his renewed record executive status, I might as well stop writing and pretend I thought “Solo Dolo Part 2” was better than “Solo Dolo”. The only problem is, a lot of the production on Indicud isn’t that great and only shines on the two tracks with co-production (“Red Eye” was assisted by 88-Keys and “Girls” had Hit-Boy). Sure, the record has that trademark extraterrestrial sound, but rather than teleporting my aural crevices to another planet - like Emile and Plain Pat did on The Man On The Moon series - a lot of it just sounds synth-heavy and technically average.

I get that Indicud represents his newfound independence and Cudi is all about helping out his "brothers" (I mean, he did give Big Sean his G.O.O.D. Music Jesus piece), but it just plays like an in-your-face attempt to draw attention to his label and get people queuing up to be part of it. IDK, maybe I’m too hung up on the early days of Cudi and should just stay at home listening “Day ‘N’ Night” on repeat, but is it too much to ask for a Kid Cudi album where Kid Cudi actually stands out?

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