Melancholy Music Masterclass: 6 Songs That Help Us Cope With (And Sometimes Perpetuate) Sadness

Music is the mood maker. It really is. Put on some Marvin Gaye in the bedroom with some candles lit, it sends a very clear, non-verbal cue to your lover or spouse. Drive with some Metallica playing, blaring through open car windows while you scowl like an asshole sends the non-verbal communication that you are in an aggressive state. Perhaps calling music a mood enhancer would be more accurate in this case. Whatever mood you may be in, there is a music genre that can fit that mood, feed it, or heal it. Sometimes it can be nice to feed it. To feed the beast inside you with some hard, crunchy rock or to feed the still living teenager inside your dead, old frame pop music to liven you up. Hell, most 80’s music is straight up “good mood”, synth heavy music that can lift your spirits and energy like a shot of B9. But what about sadness? Do we feed our sadness musically or starve it in hopes of it scuttling off? We feed it. We recognize it is there, we recognize that it is a necessary feeling to have in life, and we feed it, so when it is nourished, it leaves us and in the meantime, sad music reminds us through lyrics and haunting melodies that we are never alone in that sadness. Someone else gets it, so much so, they wrote a song for that very feeling.

Here, for your future consideration on a sad, rainy Sunday, are 6 songs that help feed the sadness enough that it eventually moves on. Or in the very least, stands as a testimony to the fact that you, unlike most people, are not afraid to run from that and know sadness is needed or else we wouldn’t truly know happiness. If it didn’t rain now and then we would we still appreciate the sun? Think about it.

Keep in mind, list wise, some of the tunes and some of the subject matter in this piece may be heavy to some. Also, all areas of loss are presented here musically. From losing a parent to losing love to wanting to lose your own life. But please, only use these songs to help you face what you need to. Do not let them break you, as you are stronger than that, even if no one tells you that enough.

Codex by Radiohead

The sad and wonderful and brilliant thing about Radiohead is, no matter what album you listen to by this “maybe best band ever”, you are guaranteed at least 70% sad music. That is part of what makes Radiohead such a musical staple for so many. They allow you to bask in your sadness and then shut it off when it becomes too much. Though all their music is epic in scope and brilliant, there is a rawness to the track Codex of the In Rainbows album that just sounds JUST like what sadness feels like.

From the haunting, simplistic piano, to the swirtling ambient noises that accompany it, there is a line in Codex about jumping into a clear lake when no one is around, and this song sounds and feels like that. Like floating all alone in cold water and not knowing why you are drowning, but being fully aware you are.

Sad, yes. But breathtaking as well, as those two things need to mingle for sadness to be okay.

Hurt by Johnny Cash (and Original by Nine Inch Nails)

When I first heard Hurt on the Downward Spiral album by Nine Inch Nails, I was floored, literally. It was so sad it put me on the floor, face down. But it also captured a feeling of hopelessness in me and put it into words so astutely that I fell in love as hard as I actually fell on the floor.

BUT….

Johnny Cash’s cover (and accompanying video seen above) is maybe some of the most poignantly sad music to ever be put together. When Trent Reznor sang about being hurt, he was a young man talking about being broken, but we knew he would get up. When Cash sang it we heard every year of that man’s life in his voice. We heard the loss of his soulmate. We heard a man on the very doorstep of death singing about how his life has given him a crown of thorns to wear (though trent called it “a crown of shit” in his version) and the burden that weighs on him. You feel it, all of it. And to top it all off, last music video Johnny Cash ever made.
If you can get through it without crying, good on you, but songs like this are cathartic in the sense they make us sob and in doing so, they get those feelings OUT from inside us. Out is safer, locking things away (especially emotions) can eventually drive you mad or even kill you.

Ruth Marie by Mark Kozelek

If there is a list on this song that I cannot listen to for just how gut-wrenching it is, it is Ruth Marie by brilliant singer songwriter Mark Kozelek (formerly of Red House Painters). A song that, based on composition alone, is achingly sorrowful, but once he begins singing the story of the song, you crumble faster than a Jenga tower being yanked on by kids with ADHD.

The song, sung from the perspective of the Ruth Marie character, is about being placed in an old folks home by your kids, being fully aware that she can no longer take care of herself and how when her kids are leaving, she weeps while looking into “the eyes I gave you.”

Hell, I am weeping right now just talking about it. It is like a gut punch but one we all need so as to better understand the elderly and how hard that must be on them, as opposed to making it all about how hard their aging is on US.

A song the world needs to hear, bit keep the tissues nearby, for real. We can all relate to this song on some level, but it leaves you weak in knees and wet in the eyes.

Mad World by Gary Jules (original ‘not-as-sad-sounding’ version by Tears For Fears)

All I have to do is say the name of the song, post the video, and walk away, The lyrics here say it all, and say it so succinctly that me adding anything would just detract from the true sullen power of this funeral march of a song.

But come on, on some really really REAL shit, we have all had days when we wish we could just curl up in a ball and die. Life is tough life that, and it is tough like to most of us.
At least Gary Jules’ cover of Mad World gives us an actual, literal soundtrack for those exact broken moments.

Just don’t play on repeat, as this one is so heavy it might break your back if you carry it too long.

Say Something by Great Big World featuring Christina Aguilera

Breaking up with someone you love is bullshit, but it is bullshit every single human being has in common with one another. It is bullshit we have ALL stepped in at some point, so the sadness that accompanies that is a sadness known by all. A universally recognized sadness, some may say. Though it could be said that there are LITERALLY thousands of break up songs that make you feel like shit when you hear them, Say Something goes one step further. It somehow steps into the room of your last, nasty breakup and says things you wish you could have. Just the simple act of begging someone you love to know why they are leaving or breaking you and they don’t even answer, that is the very definition of the word crestfallen. And hearing it all sung beautifully makes it even harder to digest. But remember, we do not move on until we face things, and songs like this help us face the very things that attempt to break us, which only makes us stronger.

But it is the hook in this song is just so damning that every time you hear it, it summons unfortunate memories of a time you loved someone when you shouldn’t have, as they were not worthy of it.

“Say something I’m giving up on you.”
That hook alone hits harder than any right hook I ever took to the jaw, and I’ve taken my share.

Honorable Mention (A.K.A sad song # 6): Gloomy Sunday. 

I can’t say it HELPS people with depression as the song itself has caused countless suicides throughout history. All I can say is, when it comes to sad song lists, you kinda can’t leave out the one song that is literally known to kill people. Click that link and do some research, it is kind of freaky, actually.

A song SO SAD it causes people who hear it to jump out windows. Really.
Just don’t listen to it if you’re sad. Fair? Save this one for a sunny day. Think of that as a song with a warning label. Do not consume while feeling less than 100%, music doctor’s orders.

And for those who found this list utterly depressing, here you go:

Cheer up, Bucko. Sadness is like clouds. They do come overhead and block out the sun sometimes. But the best thing is, you give even the grayest of clouds enough time, even they will eventually move along on their own, reminding you the sun was always there even if you lost sight of it for a second.

Subversive And Mellifluous: Kweku Collins "Nat Love" Album Review

Finding new music and new musicians and artists who strike chords (literal and otherwise) within us is not always easy when new music drops every day in every genre by more and more artists, yet with less and less seeming to have actual substance. With every genre flooded with faces, names, and sound-alike sing-a-longs, what does it take to stand out in music right now? Truthfully, it takes the bravery of being honest and vulnerable in a landscape of bravado and machismo. It takes having a sound that sets you apart from the thousands of others dropping new shit every day. It takes stepping aside from the needs of the mainstream to make a music that is so true to the artist that, as a listener, you cannot help but feel it, too. On those notes alone (pun intended) the Nat Love album by Kweku Collins might be some of the best music I have heard in years, my love for Kid Cudi aside. But before I tell you about Nat Love and Kweku Collins sound, I have to define it, and the best part of his music is that you cannot do that. Genre-defying and expectation exceeding, Nat Love deserves recognition on a level it probably won’t get because it actually has substance and depth and we know how much that shit scares people these days. They just want a catchy hook repeated at them until they can vomit it out in their sleep. Nat Love is so much more than that.The realest moptherfuckers will recognize that and will make it rise to the top, like it deserves.

First off, a little bit about the man himself. Kweku Collins is a mere 19 years old and lives on the outskirts of Chiraq (for real). Though do not get fooled, he has a sound and wisdom that his age does not hint at. Had someone told me this dude was a 40 year vet to the scene I woulda believed it on sound alone, but nah, dude is still young as hell is dropping fire at 19. Makes me wonder what he will be making in 20 years. My mind cannot even fathom if this is him still getting his toes wet. 

For me, dude came out nowhere. Some peeps I know are aware that I have a very distinct sound I love (dare I call it drug fueled hip hop? Nouveau trip hop? Island hip hop? All of those labels will make me sound like a music douche and undermine the actual music as well, but you’ll know the sound once you hear it) and they had me listen to a track called Delilah off his premier E.P ‘Say It Here while It’s Safe.’ I Loved the track and this was just the time that Nat Love was dropping so I snagged myself a copy and was floored by what I heard. This is an album that is not able to be labeled with any one sound. Though he raps sometimes, he does it over intricate beats and synth sounds that feel like they are born more from outer space than our own Earth, so calling him just a rapper isn’t fair (shoutout to Death of a Salesman, as that may be his most “rap” track on the album and is an absolute earworm of a song that perfectly capture racial tensions in this country right now between African Americans and wayward police officers with itchy trigger fingers.) It is also that depth that sets Kweku Collins apart from the herd. This is not a dude rapping gun bars or dropping songs about how much “pussy he smashed’ which is the most common trite we get now. This is an artist wearing his heart on his sleeve. Take the song Stupid Rose for example:

“If I’m a rapper, than she’s a bad bitch, not that she isn’t, that’s just invalid.” 

In my opinion, that line kinda sums up Nat Love’s whole vibe and Kweku himself. If you look at that line as a meta reference to him knowing what sound he is repping but also showing, though he recognizes it, he is not going to perpetuate it, says so much about his whole steez. It supersedes the overused tropes and norms of modern music, and in doing so, becomes something great. And even their simplistic nature of Stupid Rose with the depth of what the song is really saying (roses do wilt but love often does quicker), you find yourself inside a catchy anthem that gets stuck in your brain. But do not get fooled. This song may be poppy, but the album itself goes from ethereal to dark and back again, so do not get too attached to one sound, as Kweku’s Nat Love captures a variety of sounds, from pop synth to spitting fire bars over acoustic chords. I won’t lie to you and tell you it is not drug fueled music, because it is, but in the best ways. Take the song Ego Killed Romance (featuring an amazing hook sung by Jamila Woods that will get stuck in your head forever). This is a song the defies explanation. It sounds like the beam of a star shooting from satellite to satellite before exploding in the most beautiful supernova you have ever seen/heard. That doesn’t make sense, but if you hear the song, it will make sense to you, and my point in this whole review is that everyone needs to hear this song and this entire album. It spans every sound you could imagine, addresses loss and longing like very few artists dare to tread these days, and is so unique that it refreshes my lost faith in music. I wouldn’t be committing this to print if I didn’t think it could potentially have the same affect on some of you.

Of course, there are still a couple tracks I really need to discuss. Ghost is one of those dark, late-at-night songs that could just as easily be about actual ghosts as it is regret. The sound of the song captures the feel of the title, and the “Right there out your window” hook is creepy as it is contagious.

Outsiders is a quiet nod to the book and movie of the same name, with some heavenly acoustic guitar playing over some thick drums while Kweku asks us all to “Stay Golden” for him. A nod to to this, for those blissfully unaware:

I grew up on that book and movie, so as soon as I heard him say “Stay Golden For Me”, I welled up, I won't lie. Not because of the movie, either. Just because we all have a proverbial ‘Ponyboy’ we lost to some tragedy in our lives. And this lullabye, mid-record, makes us all remember that person, whoever they were to you and I.

Vanilla Skies (another subtle pop culture nod on his part) nicely harkens back to the R&B tracks of the 90’s you would put on to let your significant other know you ‘wanted some’. But it also has a cool, laid back 70’s soul-vibe to it, so you can bang to it or smoke a blunt to it, and both feel just as fitting.

The Rain That Wouldn’t Save (this dude comes up with the best song titles, by the way. Someone needed to say it) is another standout track due to the fact that it sounds like a ballad, yet, Kweku spits some sick, monotoned rap over some mellow guitar chords and it sounds quite unlike anything else out there. There is a heart beat like cadence to how he spits his lines in The Rain That Wouldn’t Save, and even though it has no actual chorus (which few artists do but I love), the bridges that break the songs verses in two both say some profound shit that stops and makes you reassess your own life.

“Cuz I believe in the power of my N*’s but ultimately it’s gonna be up to me to get with it” followed later on by “Finally the opportunity has arisen for me to contribute to something that I see as bigger.” Heady stuff and it will just make you look at your own life and wonder what you could be doing differently or for the betterment of yourself or the world. When a song is SO GOOD, it makes you feel guilty about how you live, you KNOW you on some other level shit. Then the song is just acoustic guitar and piano and fades out softly like the raindrops in the title. Stunning, really, and a perfect way to end a perfect album.

But REALLY, I need to give it up for the song 1:30, Curbside (again that name game strong AF). Though the whole album is tight from the intro the the final track (the aforementioned Rain That Wouldn’t Save), 1:30, Curbside is some dark, muddy, creepy, dank shit that has a beat so grimy you need to wipe your ears after listening. It is simplistic, not overproduced at all. If anything, it is a minimalistic track, but the tone of the song nails that feeling of being fucked up right around 2 a.m, somewhere you maybe shouldn’t be. And the chorus of the song hints at a greater conspiracy behind the wealth and fame and popularity in the rise of the urban culture scene, even going so far as to call out the long fallen Kanye West, singing:
No one man should have all that power.
Power makes a good soul go wrong.

And then he goes on to say “If you run the streets, they run the world…...and if I die for you, then we all die for them.” It is an indictment on the very scene he finds himself in (though may be an indictment of Chiraq as well, who’s to say? Just here to speculate). Regardless, the heavy weight of that song will stay with you long after you hear it, and may be the deepest cut on the album (in this writer’s opinion). One night I repeated it for about an hour and half straight, just zonin’ out my window, staring at the dark.

So at the end of the day, do I think this is a good album? 
Obviously. I think it is a great album.

But honestly, for me it is more than just an album. Every track is fantastically unique in its own way, he sings as much as he raps, the production is insanely tight and each beat and hook will make you realize that Nat Love is one of those ‘once in a lifetime’ albums (for me, at least). Not only do you love the music, but the actual messages in the songs seem as if they are speaking directly to you, across genders and cultures.

If anything is more worthy of a perfect rating than that, I don’t know what it is. 

In Closing: 

Kweku Collins Nat Love album is a fantastic and varied listening experience that takes you from from drunken curbsides at one thirty in the morning to the outer reaches of space and back again. Sonically pleasing to the ears with writing as tight as it is well-constructed, Kweku Collins may have just kicked the door open and taken over the game for those of us who like our music to have some substance as well as being catchy and unique. Is it hip hop? Is it pop? Alternative hip hop? Trip hop? What does it matter when with a record this good? Real art trascends the need for genres or labels, and that is what this is. 

5 out of 5

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Purchase "Nat Love" by Kweku Collins

Kid Cudi, Mental Illness, And The Bravery It Takes To Share That With The Public

I am sure you were all as crushed by the recent news that Kid Cudi had himself institutionalized for depression and suicidal urges, but we need to step outside ourselves and realize how important and brave this move really was. 

Massive, unyielding, unwavering, props to Scott Mescudi, first and foremost. In a time when rappers shout about the things they own, how big their dick is, and how powerful they are, masking clearly massive insecurities by overcompensating, Kid Cudi comes out and does the bravest thing I have ever seen a musician do. He straight up told his fans he is depressed and has been fighting suicidal urges (on the regs) and needed to stop and get help. This is a huge moment, because we live in a world where, black or white, female or male, we are told to push those feelings down and ignore them and not even talk about them out loud because they are so taboo that they make some people piss themselves. Well, maybe we needed someone like Kid Cudi for this. Someone brave enough to step and up and say out, loud “hey ya’ll, I am sad and cannot fix this on my own” to wake the rest of us up to be just as brave and honest. You know what? I’ve been there, too. Tried to take my own life at 27, razor to my neck. But here I am. Years later, alive and thriving. And you want to know what helped? Ironically, his music helped saved my life because he sung from the rusted soul of a wounded man. Made me realize I wasn’t as alone in that darkness as I thought I was. Now HE is in that same darkness, surrounded. So maybe it is time WE step up and try to do the same thing for him and others like him.

Seems only right. One hand holds another, only to be saved itself, later on by the very same hand it once held. Circle of life shit.

By the way, Cudder = Cudi fan, not a “cutter” who self-harms, just so we are all on same page.

First Off, We Get It (as Much As We Can, Anyway)

To anyone who is a true fan of Kid Cudi’s music, it is there. The torment, the demons, and the pain. I can give examples right off, without even having to listen to anything.

“What would you do if you heard the news that I was dead?”

“All along I knew I was meant to be alone, out here on my own..”

“No one wants a troubled boy, leave alone that troubled boy…”

“Tried it all, I can’t stop this internal bleeding, and my heart is leaking out...and it hurts..”

“My Mom’s calling, think I should hit decline on the face while I’m thinking ‘about suicide.”

Those just being a handful of lyrics taken from varied albums and singles, but the pain was there and it was always palpable to those of us who had a soul. I even tried tweeting at dude once or twice to make sure he was okay, but you know how that world is. You cannot show weakness. Which is what makes his Facebook post and depression declaration even more profound.

For those who may have missed it, here is the post from Kid Cudi’s Facebook page from last week, word-for-word:

It's been difficult for me to find the words to what I'm about to share with you because I feel ashamed. Ashamed to be a leader and hero to so many while admitting I've been living a lie. It took me awhile to get to this place of commitment, but it is something I have to do for myself, my family, my best friend/daughter and all of you, my fans. 
Yesterday I checked myself into rehab for depression and suicidal urges. 
I am not at peace. I haven't been since you've known me. If I didn't come here, I would've done something to myself. I simply am a damaged human swimming in a pool of emotions everyday of my life. There's a raging violent storm inside of my heart at all times. Idk what peace feels like. Idk how to relax. My anxiety and depression have ruled my life for as long as I can remember and I never leave the house because of it. I can't make new friends because of it. I don't trust anyone because of it and I'm tired of being held back in my life. I deserve to have peace. I deserve to be happy and smiling. Why not me? I guess I give so much of myself to others I forgot that I need to show myself some love too. I think I never really knew how. Im scared, im sad, I feel like I let a lot of people down and again, I'm sorry. It's time I fix me. I'm nervous but ima get through this. 
I won't be around to promote much, but the good folks at Republic and my manager Dennis will inform you about upcoming releases. The music videos, album release date etc. The album is still on the way. Promise. I wanted to square away all the business before I got here so I could focus on my recovery.
If all goes well i'll be out in time for ComplexCon and i'll be lookin forward to seeing you all there for high fives and hugs.
Love and light to everyone who has love for me and I am sorry if I let anyone down. I really am sorry. I'll be back, stronger, better. Reborn. I feel like shit, I feel so ashamed. I'm sorry.

I love you,
Scott Mescudi

Wow. Nah man, we love you, on some real shit. You haven’t let anyone down and please stop being so hard on yourself. Maybe that very high standard is what makes you feel sad. Don’t apologize. The only person you owe anything to is yourself, and you taking those steps should not be followed with an apology. We got you, bro. And again, to reiterate, WOW.

That post, my dear friends and fellow Cudders, is bravery. The bravest of the brave. Hell, I tried to take my life years back and my own family hid it from other members of the family so that shows you the shame and taboo that goes along with it. So to step up willingly and use his own words to tell us fans and fam how he feels is some other level shit. It really is. The bravado of hip hop as of late is not bravado at all. Waving a gun and wagging a cock back and forth. Weak shit. This post Cudi wrote to fans was the complete opposite of that. This was that bad dream we all have of showing up at high school or work naked. Yet, Kid Cudi walked into class naked, willingly. You try to tell me that is not brave I will smack your face with a handful of baby powder. Listen to this song Trauma off his Speedin’ Bullet to Heaven (a name that scared me TBH) album and tell me you would not be tormented if you were him:

Anyone can act tough as a shield, but the toughest people alive let us know when they drop to one knee. And hell, if they are an inspiration to you like Kid Cudi is to me, you take a knee too, even if only for a second out of respect.

#YouGoodMan

Had this been anyone else and anyone else in control of their PR you would have gotten some straight “Cudi is drinking a lot and going to rehab a bit” PR release from some soulless agent, and that is NOT what we got. What we got was the exact opposite of that. A naked, exposed soul was letting the world know he was sick of suffering and was going to try and change that (and NOT with the barrel of a gun in his mouth, thankfully). 

Our problem is we see the wrong things as brave now. We really do. Stupid things like people skydiving from outer space and not dying we see as heroic and not stupid (which it REALLY is) and we refuse to recognize when people do truly brave things, like Kid Cudi did here. We put people on pedestals for picking up a piece of trash off the ground to ‘save the earth’, but then don’t say anything to someone who tries to save themselves. What? Even my friends on Facebook who have been institutionalized (I know at least 5) never told anyone outside me and few others. THAT is how taboo it is. Yet here you are talking about a guy who admitted that to one hundred million people on Facebook. How is that not brave? How does that not raise the standard of how we treat ourselves? It is and it does, period, and we owe thanks to Scott Mescudi for that.

In a world where Cudii was surrounded by people who use massive shields of egocentricity to survive and thrive, he chose to lower his shields and be real. The man deserves all the help he needs as well as some serious accolades once he pulls through this. And yes, I said ONCE he pulls through, because I know he will. I know this because the few of us who are actually brave enough to admit they are scared and sad and overwhelmed are the ones who also get saved because they were brave enough to admit that in the first place.

Also, I know the business really well. There is NO WAY his agent wanted him to do that. They would have pushed him to put a spin on it. Drugs, sex addiction, any of those. But HE chose to post what he did to his fans and HE chose to get himself help, and that is what cements Kid Cudi as one of my heroes.

Because he has the balls to reach his own hand in and use his music to pull his fans and fam from the darkness, all whilst admitting that very darkness is swallowing him alive, too. It doesn’t get much braver than that. So I say kudos to Kid Cudi. 

It was brave what you did, and many in life wouldn’t have had the same courage to be as honest as you. May you truly findthe peace in your soul that you deserve, may you realize the impact your music has had on us and helped keep so many of us here, and know, the darkness may be big, but your courage and presence and strenth is bigger, real fucking talk.

You held us up, so like I said, only fair you let us do the same for you now. And remember what you said to me that got me through a sickeningly sad and self destructive period in my own life:

At the end of the day I’m walking with the heart of a lion, the heart of a lion.

It’s true, Scott. You really are, and you got this, dude.

Oh, and thank you for being so brave. That shit isn’t easy. I been there. I will use a favorite proverb here to sum this up and help you see:

You cannot prevent the birds of sorrow from flying overhead, but you can prevent them from building nests in your hair.

You, my friend, are preventing just that, and that takes the strongest of all souls. May you find the peace you seek and you may your soul reach a place of contentment it deserves. Because hell, we all deserve peace.  And don’t forget, Cudi, you are Unfuckwittable, and how many people can say that?

Why Kid Cudi Is The (Best and) Last True Punk Rocker Alive

Make no mistakes, punk is not a type of music. It is a lifestyle choice. You can bring up the Sex Pistols and Ramones and yes, I will agree they are punk bands, but it is their attitude and approach to pop music that makes it punk, not the music itself.  While it could be said punk music is four chords of chaos and repeated hooks, punk is not punk if someone who does not carry that mentality with them is playing it. Dylan playing electric at the Newport Folk Festival is a perfect example. Yes, he played his same folky songs he always played back then, but that day, plugging in electric for an audience that viewed electric rock as the death of music was about as punk as you can get. So you see, punk is a lifestyle choice that, IF YOU ARE LUCKY, will bleed into your musical sound as well. It is with that exact thinking in mind that I present to you the simple fact that rapper, musician, and artist Kid Cudi (who is mislabeled as hip hop by all, when he in fact plays every genre) is the last of the Mohicans when it comes to punk. You may disagree now but you will find that harder and harder to do the more you read, so get reading. My point is valid if you are brave enough to give it a chance.

ALWAYS Unable to Labeled

Here is the first thing that separates Kid Cudi from most hip hop artists (and most of music, to be honest). From his very first mixtape, A Kid Named Cudi, he had hinted to us he was not just a rap artist. There was a sort of manic energy to his music that danced between morose and inspiring, hitting every emotion in between on the way.

Maybe the full-on punk hadn’t emerged yet, but there were hints of rebellion masked as a depth most rappers don’t choose to share. Cudi shared it from the start, making him braver, more honest, and hinting at the punk he’d become. Don’t let the softness of the song below throw you off. It cuts deep, a song about being different and feeling like you don’t belong and no one understands you. A song, in essence, about the very things that make someone a “punk”, already cementing my point.

Not a punk ‘song’ by any means, but written from the viewpoint of someone who very much feels isolated and misunderstood. The seeds had been sewed from day one by and for Kid Cudi.

Under the Thumb of Music Execs

This was the point he moved to a major label and the label guys started doing that thing they do when they fuck with your music because they want it to sound a certain way. They were trying all they could to make him a pop artist and hip hop artist, as displayed by his first single, which, while great, did not sum up the man’s sound at all.

But we can look at it as the moment Kid Cudi was officially put on the map, so it is a moment I am still grateful for. I just know now how much he was holding back. They made him act and perform a certain way but he hungered to let his roots be known. Scott Mescudi was not a man raised on just rap or hip hop or anything that made him feel separate or different. He listened to it all and loved it all. He loved science fiction growing up (kind of obsessed, which explains his Man on the Moon persona) and always loved all kinds of music, from alternative to punk to classic rap to modern Kanye (who he has recorded with, written for, and produced. Don’t judge, Kanye is his own article). But the major labels wanted a very specific sound, so he gave it to them, branching whenever he got the chance. His song for the Fright Night remake began to truly show his darker, punk rock roots a little more:

From the hard, crunching guitars that fill it to the yells and yelps he makes throughout the song, that was when the REAL Cudi was beginning to bleed through. This man had a darker spirit than he was being allowed to show us, and it grew more and more hungry the more it was stifled. By the second album, it was all laid out. Hell, with Mr. Rager he straight up made a rock song and the video features his “punk, dark side” killing his pure self. That, my friends, says it all. He was sick of being the peon and wanted to let his dark side out and let his real emotions win for awhile. 

This was it for him. A time to break free.. And he did. 

He Went Rogue

It finally hit him that he had the album he wanted to make with producer and good friend Dot Da Genius (Hey, I never said he was humble, but his name fits) but the kicker was, it was going to be an album inspired by white music. I know that sounds very gentrified, but understand, Cudi liked Nirvana and the Pixies and old Blues artists Lead Belly, and he wanted to make an album that reflected that. So instead of making another Cudi record that sounded too different, he took a chance and formed WZRD with Dot and they made an entire album together that is filled with guitar and crunchy Nirvana-esque riffs and screams and pure power.

And wouldn’t you know it, the album places number one on the college and alternative charts when it drops. Number one, dammit!

BUT (and there is always a but to ruin everything) fans were not as kind. Seems they wanted old Cudi even though anyone with ears and commons sense could tell how happy the WZRD record made him. Hell, at one point I was so confused as to why he didn’t tour the support the WZRD album that I tweeted at Dot and asked him why and I saw he sent it to Cudi with no response. Seemed there may have been label dogs keeping Cudi acting a certain way, which is not uncommon in that nasty business. So what does Cudi drop next? Well honestly, he drops….

One of the Greatest Hip Hop Records of all Time

So next, to really mess with those who think they know the direction he was going, he releases a double album (Indicud)  that is pretty much the pinnacle of good hip hop post 2010. Every single sound was represented on that album, from West to East coast, from 90’s influenced (Wu-Tang, YO) to stuff that sounds like nothing else out there. It really is a remarkable hip hop record.

But even then, the Indicud record hints at who Cudi wanted to be still:

Yes, featuring Father John Misty well before every neckbeard in America was bragging about this guy’s music like they discovered it. But what was to happen next? How was hip hop Cudi going to bridge WZRD Cudi so they could co-exist?
He had a plan, of course. 

Satellite Flight Was the Transition 

It was the record Satellite Flight that Kid Cudi best tried to gel both of the musical worlds he had created together into one thing. Being a huge fan who saw and heard the progression the whole time, I adore the album and its wide variety of moods and songs. But again, fans started to rise up say shit like they wanted “The OLD Cudi” back, and to me, people who said that were always insulting the artist in mention. Saying you want the old version of an artist is saying you want an artist who didn’t evolve or hasn’t grown in any way over a decade. Don’t you understand that would be hell to an artist? Is there a bigger insult than that? That would be stagnation, and no artist in their right mind would allow or perpetuate that. 

So what happened after Satellite Flight (subtitled Journey to Mother Moon)? Easy. Kid Cudi finally said FUCK IT and made the (double) album Cudi wanted. And this is the key moment he became the last true figure representing punk rock in modern music. Because he straight went punk on every level.

He left his label and stopped caring what others thought. Suddenly, out of nowhere, along comes..

Speedin’ Bullet to Heaven (And it Changes Everything)

Can you imagine the size of balls it takes to drop a double album out of the blue that is pretty much, at times acoustic, and at times punk? Well, that is what Cudi did. He switched over to Kanye West’ label (say what you want about the guy, but he let Kid Cudi make the record CUDI wanted, and that also takes balls) and the end result is easily one of the most raw, real, honest, at times heart breaking and at times inspiring records I have ever heard. Speedin’ Bullet to Heaven.

Would YOU have the balls to release a song this raw and honest:

And on the other extreme, how about  releasing a song like THIS:

That song is pure punk and the closest we have come to music like that since Kurt blew his brains out (because of or as a result of his whorish wife). Yet, you know how people reacted to this record, right?

“WAAAAHHHH, Outrage, We Want Cudi To RHYME At Us” Scream the Masses, Cudi Screams Back...F*ck You

To me, those are not fans. A fan would be selfless enough that would want an artist to evolve and explore what feeds the artist creatively. People who whine at bands or artists for changing are not really fans of that artist in the truest sense, to me at least. They are fair weather sheep who want to approach the troth hoping it is full of the same filth they love to gorge themselves on everyday. Kid Cudi got to a point in his life when he no longer wanted to help fill that troth. That, motherfuckers, is pure punk, right down to the soul.

Cudi Is the Last of His Kind

So Cudi did ONE DATE OF THE TOUR and people reacted too harshly he just pulled it and said fuck it. But all of it, everything I just mentioned above, what most people seem to be missing is, it was punk from the start. Everything this guy did, and it finally culminated in a person who still symbolizes what made a whole entire music (and lifestyle) scene be born from. From not giving fucks and doing what YOU want to do, spite what the masses may beg you for.

Keep doing you and the music that feeds your soul, Cudi. The best of us recognize it and see and hear it for what it is. All I need to say about your progression and all you've done is Amen. Ya feel me?

Real recognizes real. We see you, Cudder. We see you and thank you. For amid the music landscape we all have to choose from right now, there is still at least ONE artist staying true to himself, and if you think there is anything more punk than that, you don’t know what punk means.

Remy is the rarest Pokemon of all, and cannot be caught by anyone (even child services). He lives in a velvet cave in the Northeast, and if you say his name three times in a mirror, he appears dressed in assless chaps. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook if you hate yourself enough.