Kid Cudi – Indicud
Republic: 2013
Kid Cudi’s artistic vision, or boredom perhaps, has led him to experiment with a wide array of sounds. From his early boom-bap-heavy mixtape days to his darkened Man on the Moon series, all the way to his stint with rock music as WZRD, Cudi’s music is held by no boundaries. But as he attempts yet another style on his latest effort Indicud, we can’t help but wonder if settling down with just one style would do him better than this apparent musical A.D.D..
Indicud is Kid Cudi’s first attempt at production. It is also his first album without support from the G.O.O.D. Music crew. With such immense change, Cudi would need to figure out a brand new direction, without much help from the friends that helped him get to where he is now. And, relying on his own skills not only on the vocal front but behind the boards, expectations were truly up in the air for Indicud.
Lead singles like the “King Wizard” and “Just What I Am” had us confident that things weren’t going to change all that much. Besides the slightly more upbeat production and optimistic lyrical content, this wasn’t far off from what we had heard from Cudi in the past. But with such a lengthy endeavor, stacking in at 18 tracks, there was plenty of room for Indicud to go awry.
Let’s begin with “Young Lady”, which sports a sample of Father John Misty’s “Hollywood Forever Cemetery Sings”. This disaster of a song reminds us of Man on the Moon II‘s “Maniac”, which flat-out disrespected St. Vincent‘s “The Strangers”. Which leads us to believe buzzing indie artists have lost interest in Cudi since Man on the Moon, where top-notch acts like MGMT and Ratatat were eager to jump on the bandwagon. Except Haim, of course, who lends some pop-heavy vocals on the incredibly cheesy, Hit-Boy co-produced “Red Eye”.
Luckily, not every feature on this album is a lost cause, though, as A$AP Rocky, Kendrick Lamar and King Chip save the day during their respective appearances. And RZA dominates the rap role on “Beez”, which is perhaps the album’s strongest effort for that exact reason. Kid Cudi’s strong suit isn’t his lyricism but rather his ability to craft catchy pop rap that is heavy on melodies and sing-a-long hooks. Unfortunately, his production struggles to enable those strengths, and the majority of this album ends up sounding like a scattered mess of poorly executed and loose ideas.
But Cudi does take risks, you have got to give him that. One of those risks seems to be influenced by drugs and other illicit substances, something Cudi seems to have relied on for much of his career. Where marijuana smoke fogged much of his sound prior to Indicud, or even WZRD, it appears the Cleveland rapper’s drug of choice has shifted to cocaine. This transition can be found most visibly during a three song sequence including “Lord of the Sad and Lonely”, “Cold Blooded” and the Michael Bolton-featuring “Afterwards”, where a fast-paced ’80s influence is certainly harnessed, but stripped of any soul or passion.
It is difficult to fault Kid Cudi for throwing himself out there as much as he did with Indicud. With most of the weight on his own shoulders on this album, Cudi could just be going through a growing process. But being several albums and mixtapes deep with just about every resource at his finger tips, Indicud is reminiscent of the time your parents told you to stop messing around, move out and get a real job. Unfortunately, Cudi is a stubborn kid, and that full-length project we always thought he was capable of will have to come on his own terms.
2.5 out of 5
Pure masterpiece I don’t know what you fuckboys are talking about. the man is lightyears ahead of his time, your just too close-minded to see the pure genius in Mescudi’s work.
Nah
The reason the popular music industry – by that I mean Top 40 songs – is God-awful is because listeners cannot stand to actually utilize their brains and want someone to spoonfeed them shitty, all-too-comprehensible lyrics with a ton of bass. Yeah it’s fun when you go party with all your friends, but solely because you don’t actually care what it says. God forbid someone would make you listen to a song more than once to enjoy it. That attitude – the one you are adopting here in criticizing me for actually making use of my gray matter (after all, one day it may matter) – degrades society and perpetuates the Call Me Maybe style of music.
I think the fact you’re putting so much thought into such a brainless, flawed album is giving said album too much credit. Sorry.
It’s his version of Chronic 2001, not an exact replica in modern form. By claiming this album as such, he is referring to the work he did producing it and emphasizing some of the guest appearances more than his own lyrics, as seen on Red Eye, Beez, Solo Dolo Part II, and Afterwards. That’s an approach Dre took on that album. He does not mean that he is attempting to make a kick ass rap album.
We all know that Cudi has tendencies to get outside of rap, WZRD being the main example, but that even dates back to Day’N’Nite and his mixtapes. Would you really qualify Unfuckwittable, Immortal, Red Eye, Afterward, etc. as hip hop? No, and neither would Cudi. There’s more on here than hip hop. Listen to King Chip on the closing track “Don’t box me in/Claustrophobe.” Yeah Cudi is scatterbrained on this project, but it’s an attempt to get outside the typical genre of hip hop, as he has attempted to do for years now. This album was not meant to be classified as hip hop, even if a little over half the songs could be.
As to your other point, I find that the author supplies no evidence to substantiate his claim. I can’t imagine he attempted to listen to the album more than twice, nor do I believe that he pondered the purpose of Cudi doing all that he did. Cudi has sold millions of copies of albums that have an interweaving theme/story (MOTM I and II). Should we just write this particular effort off as disjointed because it sounds like it at first listen? I believe that a person who writes these reviews should have more analysis to actually prove to us why he believes Indicud to be “a scattered mess.” He completely ignores what are likely the two most crucial songs on the album that could tie it together (Mad Solar and Lord of the Sad and Lonely), doesn’t attempt to explicate purposes of other songs other than assuming that Cudi though they sounded cool (which I’m sure Cudi did, but I’m also positive he had a purpose for them other than that), and he ignores other informative factors such as the album cover and the title.
Now, i don’t care whether one enjoys this album or not. It is indeed rather difficult to listen to. But does that give us license to write it off after barely listening to it? This blogger doesn’t even quote any of the damn lyrics! Cudi may not be a lyricist, but he puts his heart out there and tells you what exactly is going on. I find this a lazy effort that explains that the reviewer dislikes the album and doesn’t prove it. This would be akin to writing a basic book report in high school in which someone wrote a thesis, threw in some inflammatory statements, and provided little to no textual evidence. That’s fine for an uninformed commenter, but I would expect someone who actually writes these pieces on a regular basis to put some effort into it.
Now this may be a long and ridiculous answer, but I hope it conveyed my message. If not, see the review I referenced in my first post. Hopefully that writer will be able to explain what I am referring to better than I can.
Also, does this now sum up exactly why this album fails?
“Kid Cudi’s strong suit isn’t his lyricism but rather his ability to craft catchy pop rap that is heavy on melodies and sing-a-long hooks. Unfortunately, his production struggles to enable those strengths, and the majority of this album ends up sounding like a scattered mess of poorly executed and loose ideas.”
You lost me when you said Cudi didn’t intend on this being a hip-hop album. Dude said it was his version of Chronic 2001, among other things.
While I agree with the general sentiment of this review, I’m rather disappointed that the same site posted this review and the review of Justin Timberlake’s newest album. This could have been written by anyone with an interest in music who listened to the album twice. You mention eight songs off what is really a fifteen song album, don’t analyze any of them except “Young Lady” (which is indeed awful, but one awful song plus one cheesy song shouldn’t condemn an entire album), and show a complete lack of knowledge concerning the artist and his past (Cudi was on coke during his second album, sobered up completely for WZRD, and has clearly returned to narcotics for this effort). You also seem to wish to classify this as a hip hop album, though it’s clearly not and was never intended to be.
I have plenty of issues with the way Cudi put Indicud together, and I agree with much of what you say in your final paragraph. But I hold people who actually review music on reputable sites to a higher standard of listening and writing. I may know what you’re writing about because I’ve listened to this album a couple of times, but for those readers who are checking in because they haven’t, you do a pretty shitty job of explaining – utilizing specific tracks and actual musical knowledge – why it deserves the rating you gave it. Please go read your colleague’s review of the 20/20 Experience (most of which wasn’t even about the album itself) to grasp why I’m pissed you half-assed this.
agreed. as a Cudi naysayer, he had a few good ones, he was very hit or miss and when he hit, he hit it where he knows how to. other times he seems like he was just seeing what weird sound he could come up with and forgot to ask someone how it sounded.
Kanye prob dropped him after hearing waht this album was sounding like.
its aight. better than wzrd, which was garbage. however like Big boi’s album last year, CuDi does well but not great
This album is borderline unlistenable. It’s just excruciatingly bad.
I like about half the tracks, a few I have just been skipping over. Good review, I can definitely agree with Cudi being scatterbrained on this one.
Nice review, homie. Totally agree.