from Cleveland, Ohio.
In 2009, his debut single Night and Day
reached the top five of the Billboard charts.
He has sold over five million digital singles,
and has worked with some of the most
prominent artists in the music industry.
He’s Kid Cudi, and here are his top 10 rules for success.
– It’s really just about the right timing,
and having some good stuff, and just being creative.
‘Cause that’s half of the battle.
It’s like, kids think that it’s just easy to get a deal,
that’s not even half of it.
Getting a deal is very easy to do, it is,
but it’s after that.
You know what I’m sayin’?
What you’re going to do and what kind of music do you have,
what kind of product are you bringing to the table.
I think what made me get to where I’m at right now
is because of the originality in the music
and the fact that I was trying to push the envelope
on just everything, genres in music.
I think that’s what made me more noticeable
out of everybody else.
I always kind of–
When I grew up, I always
kind of felt like an outcast and (bleep),
you know what I mean?
Instead of being worried about that (bleep) now,
I kind of embraced it and that’s why
I made such a leap creatively into my music.
That’s why we are hearing about me, because when I stopped
second guessing myself, and going in,
that’s when I created Dat New New and Day and Night.
I’ve been consistent ever since.
The mixtape, the album, all the features I’ve been doing.
Ever since I made that change within me, (bleep) been good.
At the end of the day, my mama told me,
“Don’t let no one break me.”
At the end of the day, no one can ever stop me.
It’s just like, those things are true.
Nobody can be the commander of your destiny but you.
Only if you let somebody else take over.
But you always have the power and have the control.
That’s what people need to remember.
Day to day, it actually sparks more minds and
has people wanting to be more leaders than followers.
I think people are just a little scared that
they’ll lose the audiences’ attention, which is a real fear.
I get it.
It also goes back to what I was saying.
I’ve been blessed with a fanbase that is into
what I’m doing no matter what.
That’s just dope.
But the average artist, they can’t just experiment.
There’s like fear, where they might not sell records.
And then that’s bad for business, and this is a business.
So you know.
It’s understood, why most guys don’t really do it.
I would like to see people do it.
I feel like that’s not an excuse, there’s a way
where people can be a little bit more creative and
push the envelope a lot more with their music.
Where it fits in in a way that makes sense,
is true to their art and their formula.
I feel like there’s always a way to try something new and
be innovative and bring something different to the table.
Just Dre’s whole thought process, how he’s so thoughtful
with the beats and to every little meticulous sound.
I was inspired by that.
You hear that in my production.
My favorite producers are as follows:
Dr. Dre, Swizz Beatz, Timbaland, Kanye West.
– [Interviewer] That’s your four right there.
– That’s my four.
Of course, there’s my family, Plain Pat and Emile,
who are (bleep) phenomenal.
They eat humble pie every (bleep) day they wake up,
so you’ll never get it out of them,
but those (bleep) are geniuses.
– [Interviewer] No doubt.
– They had to be to (bleep) with me in the first place.
To see it before I saw it myself, what I could be.
– Yeah, yeah, yeah. – Yeah.
– So, you know, I’m going into this project
thinking about those people.
When I want to add a sound at the end,
or when I want to switch the beat up.
I’m like, I used to love when Timbaland would switch the
beat up at the end,
and it would just be a whole other song down there.
Let me try to do my own flavor of that.
How could I recreate and reimagine this beat
in the same song?
Or give them a sound in the beginning that
they won’t hear until they hear it at the end.
Just very meticulous, and strategic,
with a lot of the production.
I nerded out a bit, and that was the fun part.
That I got to be a straight up nerd on some
of the most aggressive (bleep) hip hop (bleep).
I look at the genres as different races in this game.
Hip hop is one race, rock and roll is another race,
and R&B, and so on and so forth.
What I’m doing is trying to end the segregation
between genres, you know what I mean,
and kind of just fusing them together,
and making it one super song, so to speak.
That’s what I’m trying to do,
but just do it in a way where it’s appropriate.
Not just, I want to do a record with this band
because it’s a band, and we need to fuse hip hop
with alternative rock because it’s a new thing to do.
I’ll just go get this band to do this hook for me,
and I’ll just rap on this rock and roll beat.
It’s like, no.
That’s been done before.
What’s the next (bleep)?
We can fuse alternative rock with some electro,
and still put hip hop on it,
and fuse all three of those together.
Maybe we can take some folk, put some nice drums on it,
some hip hop drums, mix it in with some country,
some guitar, you know what I mean?
And get someone like Lykke Li to jump on it and
really kill it on the hook side of things, give her a verse.
Give me a verse, we’ll do a duet.
But at the same time, it’s a song you’ve never heard before,
with a sound that you’ve never heard before either.
It’s done in a way where it’s like, it’s different
but it’s believable.
It sounds good.
Kid Cudi has tried to execute that (bleep) in a way
that nobodys ever done before.
I wanted to surpass Day and Night ten times over.
I wanted to make this album like it was my third album.
I wanted to go in and just, no holds barred,
just come with it man.
People didn’t know what to expect from me because of
Day and Night just being such a big success.
“This guy could just be a one-hit wonder,
“he could just have all these really wack songs after this.”
I love that pressure and I kind of took that
and put it into my creativity.
Just really went in, made some new sounding (bleep).
I find that when you have your friends in the studio
you got a couple guys on World Star,
a couple guys on Twitter, couple of guys over here,
and everybody’s talking about what’s going on over here,
and what’s going on over here,
and you’re trying to write this song, you get distracted.
You’re like, “What happened, aw hell no, that’s funny!”
Next thing you know, two hours have gone by,
still working on this record.
You had some laughs, but what you came
to the studio for is not done yet.
There’s money being spent, there’s time.
Time is of the essence.
It’s w1hat we hustled and worked hard for.
I had to remind myself.
I was like, this turned into a fucking party.
We’re here for work.
So I also have this really gnarly work ethic.
I’ve been working since I was 15.
My first job was Wendy’s.
I remember why I wanted to work, it was because I wanted
my own shit and I was tired of asking my mom for stuff.
Also, I didn’t think it was fair to ask my mom for stuff.
I know we didn’t have much.
Work for me, is always one of those things
that’s very important.
I think it’s important in life to know who you are
in order to progress,
and that’s what this album is about, self-reflection.
At the end just being, alright it’s a new day,
it’s morning, let’s start right.
Being confident, and that’s ultimately what
Man on the Moon is, cuz that’s the message
in this first installment.
– [Interviewer] What does hip hop need to do?
– I think the braggadocio, money, cash, hoes
thing needs to be dead.
(cheering)
I feel like, that’s holding us back
as a culture, as black people.
It doesn’t advance us in any way, shape, or form.
We’ve been doing that same thing for years now.
It’s been what, like four decades of the same old,
(bleep) sorry for my language.
And I feel like, if you’re going to be an artist,
there’s a time when you just have to
embrace the responsibility and understand
that the power of music is something so special
and be able to do it on this magnitude,
where you reach millions of people.
It’s like, why not use that for good?
Why not tell kids something that they can connect with
and use in their lives.
My mission statement since day one,
and I’m getting so worked up talking about this,
all I wanted to do was help kids not feel so alone,
and stop kids from committing suicide.
(cheering)
Thank you.
I never try to be political, I’m actually shaking,
I can’t believe I’m saying this.
– Those two specific things, where does that come from?
– I dealt with suicide for the past five years.
There wasn’t a week or day that didn’t go by where I was
just like, you know, I want to check out.
I know what that feels like,
and I know it comes from loneliness.
I know it comes from not having self-worth,
not loving yourself, and these are things that
kids don’t have music that can coach them
and give them that guidance.
I didn’t have that.
I had to listen to Jay-Z and take certain things from it,
and other (bleep) I just didn’t know
what he was talking about.
(laughter)
Now I’m 30, and I’m like, oh that’s
what hope was talking about, I get it now.
What about the kids that never really had an artist
where you connected with them all across the board?
I think that’s my job.
I’m really just trying to guide people and help people,
cuz loneliness is a terrible, terrible thing, man.
If you don’t know how to conquer it, it can eat you alive.
– Thank you so much for watching,
I made this video because Obina Ejoma asked me to.
So if there’s a famous entrepreneur that
you want me to profile next,
leave it in the comments below and I’ll see what I can do.
I’d also love to know which of Kid Cudi’s top 10 rules
meant the most to you.
Leave it in the comments below and
I’m going to join in the discussion.
Thank you so much for watching, continue to believe,
and I’ll see you soon.
”
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