Unless you live under a rock, you've
probably heard that Kid Cudi's new album, Indicud, just
(unofficially) dropped. Now, I've never really been a huge fan of Kid
Cudi, but I've heard his name pop up a lot, and he seemed to me to
have a reputation of being a very unusual rapper. My Twitter feed was
pretty full of praise for Indicud and I'm more musically aware than I
was last time he released an album, so I figured that I'd check out
the album, see what the big deal was.
In fact, I'm still trying to figure out
what the big deal is, although that is more a result of high
expectations than the album really being bad. I've listened through
Indicud a couple of times and it has not captured me close to the
level I feel I expected it to. Some of the production is pretty good,
but his lyricism and flow just don't do much for me. It's certainly
an okay album, but the way people talk about Cudi, they make him out
to be this generation's great rapper, which is simply untrue. Not
with people like Billy Woods or Aesop Rock still around making music.
In fact, even though some of his production is pretty good, you
really couldn't call him the best producer of this generation,
especially considering that Willie Green and Blockhead are still very
active.
But before I get myself too much on a
roll hating, I want to talk a bit about what I like about the album.
Which basically comes down to the first quarter (The Resurrection
of Scott Mescudi through Immortal) While not amazing, a
lot of the production in this section is pretty good. One of my
favorite tracks as far as production was actually the intro, The
Resurrection of Scott Mescudi. It's a haunting, driving track
that manages to be atmospheric but solid at the same time. I really
wish he had expanded on this track a bit more, because it's really
pretty catchy and intense. The sample at the end is also a nice
touch, especially with the way it leads into the next track,
Unfuckwittable, another track with pretty quality production.
It gets a bit dubstep-y at moments for me, but other than that I
really dig the beat on this track. It also features one of the best
hooks on the album in an album with pretty strong hooks.
Actually, I think that's a pretty big
point to make: I really like the hooks on this quarter of the album.
Most of them are pretty catchy, and quite a few are pretty
passionate. It's the parts in between that I just can't seem to get
into. A great example of that is the track King Wizard. The
hook is really catchy and pretty badass, but the verses do not
capture me. His flow is okay, but his lyricism doesn't seem unified
or interesting. I think Cudi knows this too, because the verses on
this track, and a good amount of the tracks on here, are tiny. King
Wizard spends the last half of the track tastefully cycling the
hook and instrumental parts. He just doesn't seem to have confidence
in his ability to write and deliver a verse, and I think he's
justified in that lack of confidence.
The last three quarters of the album
though, just start to trend downward. The production gets less catchy
and less interesting, the hooks lose any of the epicness that they
had, and worst of all, Cudi tries singing more. While he
occassionally is able to hit a passionate note (see Unfuckwittable),
a lot of times he's pretty tone-deaf and just straight up misses his
note. As much as I hate to admit it, some Autotune would have served
him well on some tracks (this is probably the only time you will EVER
see me endorse Autotune). The lyricism takes a nose dive too. A track
like Girls sounds like
it belongs on a Top 40 list lyrically, and the first guest on
Brothers rhymes the
n-word with the n-word. Multiple times.
Another
huge problem I have with a lot of the songs in this last section is
that the production never seems to match the tone of the song. A
great example of this is again, Brothers.
The song is supposed to be all about how these three guys (Cudi, King
Chip, and A$AP Rocky) view their closest friends as family. At one
point, Cudi drops the line “The brothers that I never had made my
life a lot less sad”. But the beat behind them is really dreary,
somewhat surreal and really not happy or brotherly in any way. This
seems to be an issue that Cudi has pretty consistently, as if he
doesn't really understand the significance of tone in music.
In
fact, the only song that I really find at all enjoyable on this last
section is Cold Blooded.
It's pretty much the only track where Cudi really holds his own
lyrically and in terms of delivery. And while the production is
nothing special, it's at least sort of paying attention to the tone
of what Cudi is saying.
Even
with that though, I really can't in good heart recommend this to
anyone except hardcore Cudi fans. The lyrics are generally
disappointing, the production shows occasional flashes of quality,
but is mostly uninteresting and tone-deaf. There's much better rap
out there if you're willing to dig, but if not I suppose you can
settle for this.
Favorite tracks: Unfuckwittable,
Young Wizard
Least favorite tracks: Brothers,
Girls (feat. Too Short)