Kid Cudi

Kid Cudi
Kid Cudi performing in San Francisco, July 2009
Background information
Birth name	Scott Ramon Seguro Mescudi
Also known as	Cudder
Born	January 30, 1984 (1984-01-30) (age 25) Cleveland, Ohio
Origin	Cleveland, Ohio, United States
Genres	Alternative hip hop, trip hop, neo-psychedelia, alternative rock
Occupations	Rapper, singer, songwriter, actor
Years active	2006 – present
Labels	Dream On, GOOD Music, Universal Motown
Associated acts	Kanye West, Jay-Z, Ratatat, Wale, Common, MGMT, David Guetta
Website	www.kidcudi.com

Scott Ramon Seguro Mescudi,^[1] (born January 30, 1984)^[2] better known by his stage name Kid Cudi (pronounced /ˌkɪd ˈkʌdi/ - Kid Cuddy) (sometimes stylised as KiD CuDi), or also known as Cudder is a Grammy Award nominated^[3] American rapper and singer. He first gained major attention after the release of his debut mixtape A Kid Named Cudi. In 2009, his single "Day 'n' Nite" reached the top ten of the Billboard Hot 100 and Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs charts. "Day 'n' Nite" is part of Cudi's debut album Man on the Moon: The End of Day. Cudi has also worked with Kanye West, Common, and other artists signed to the GOOD Music label.

Early life

Kid Cudi was born in Cleveland, Ohio and raised in the suburb of Shaker Heights.^[4] His father, a house painter, substitute teacher and World War II Air Force veteran, was of Mexican-Native American ancestry while his mother, a middle-school choir teacher, was of African-American ancestry.^[5][6] Mescudi's father passed away from cancer when he was eleven years old; his death would have a significant effect on his personality and subsequently his music.^[6]

Career

Music career

Mescudi attended Roxboro Middle School and Shaker Heights High School for two years before transferring to Solon High School. It was towards the end of high school that Mescudi first began rapping, inspired by alternative hip hop groups such as The Pharcyde and A Tribe Called Quest.^[6] After earning his GED, he studied film at the University of Toledo, then dropped out after his freshman year.^[4] He moved to Brooklyn, New York at the age of 20 to pursue a music career. He released his first mixtape, A Kid Named Cudi, in collaboration with New York street-wear brand 10.Deep as a free download.^[7] The mixtape quickly caught the attention of Kanye West, which in turn spawned his signing to GOOD Music later that year.

Kid Cudi was featured on Kanye West's 2008 album, 808s & Heartbreak, singing with West on the track "Welcome to Heartbreak", and helping with songwriting on "Heartless" and "Paranoid". "Welcome to Heartbreak" peaked at #87 on the Pop 100,^[8] and music videos for both songs have been released. Cudi was then tipped as an artist to watch for in medias such as Rolling Stone, Vibe, The Source, XXL and BBC News's Sound of 2009 poll of up-and-coming acts.^[9] MTV News also reported on Cudi on a series of reports MCs To Watch In 2009.^[10]

Kid Cudi performing at Central Park Summerstage in New York City, in 2008.

His first television appearance was at the 2008 MTV Video Music Awards, alongside Travis Barker and DJ AM. On February 17, 2009, he appeared on Snoop Dogg's MTV talk show Dogg After Dark performing "Day 'n' Nite" at the end of the show. Two days later on February 19, 2009, Cudi appeared on BET's 106 & Park with Kanye West to debut the video of "Day 'n' Nite" . On March 16, 2009 Kid Cudi performed on mtvU's Spring Break special, and the next day he performed three songs on NBC's Last Call with Carson Daly. He has also appeared as a musical guest on The Late Show with David Letterman and Jimmy Kimmel Live.

Kid Cudi also made a cameo appearance next to Solange in the video for the song "T.O.N.Y." in February 2009, and later in the Black Eyed Peas' video for "I Gotta Feeling", with David Guetta. He has also been on two magazine covers, Complex Magazine (August/September 2009) and URB Magazine (August 2009). Bape awarded Cudi his own t-shirt in September 2009, in reward for his music and past employment there when living in New York City

Cudi's debut album Man on the Moon: The End of Day was released on Universal Motown Records on September 15, 2009^[11] and sold 104,419 copies in the first week and charted at #4.^[12] The album's first single was Day 'N' Nite, and is Kid Cudi's greatest commercial success thus far, the song charting well both in the USA and in Europe. The next single was "Make Her Say" (originally titled "I Poke Her Face"), which features a sample from Lady Gaga's song "Poker Face" and performances by Kanye West and Common.^[13][14]

On February 25, 2009, Cudi self-leaked a "teaser trailer" ^[15] for the upcoming Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen film using his song "Sky Might Fall" in the background, later he posted that he made the trailer himself and now was in talks to possibly make it official.^[16]

With Emile, Cudi produced an exclusive single called "Switchin Lanes" for the video game Midnight Club: Los Angeles, part of its "South Central Premium Upgrade" Downloadable Content (DLC) which came out March 19, 2009 for the PlayStation 3 and March 27, 2009 for the Xbox 360.^[17]

He revealed information about his future plans via his blog, saying that a possible collaboration with Chip Tha Ripper could be followed with a collaboration project with electrorock duo Ratatat^[18] Cudi joined rapper Asher Roth for the Great Hangover concert tour during the summer of 2009 and is currently on The Monster Ball Tour with Lady Gaga.^[19] Kid Cudi featured on the highly anticipated Jay-Z album The Blueprint 3, on the song "Already Home".^[20] In a recent interview, Cudi announced that the follow-up to his debut album will be a collaboration album called Cudder. He stated he has already recorded songs with Snoop Dogg, Travis Barker, Clipse and Pharrell and would also like to work with Drake, Green Day, Kings of Leon, Robin Thicke, and The Killers on the album. Kid Cudi was nominated for three 2010 Grammy Awards for his singles, Day 'n' Nite and Make Her Say.

Acting career

Kid Cudi announced that he will have a lead role in the upcoming comedy series called "How to Make it in America", produced by Mark Wahlberg.^[21]

Discography

Studio Albums

• Man on the Moon: The End of Day (2009)
• Cudder^[22] (2010)
• Man on the Moon: The Ghost in the Machine^[23] (TBA)

Mixtapes

• A Kid Named Cudi (2008)

Awards and nominations

References

External links

• Official website
• Kid Cudi at MySpace