Kid Cudi: Indicud



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)