Kid Cudi fancies himself a Serious Artist™, which in the pop sphere means he doesn’t understand art and is really bad at it. A recent appearance on The Arsenio Hall Show (no, seriously) is instructive in his total lack of understanding things. In clear defiance of reason, Aaron Paul’s co-star in a plotless racing video game adaptation appeared on national television in a Green Day t-shirt, hoodie, and carefully ripped jeans to tell us all what’s wrong with hip-hop.
Prompted by Arsenio to look into the camera and solemnly explain what hip-hop “needs”, Cudi said “I think the braggadocio, money, cash, hoes thing needs to be deaded,” to enthusiastic studio audience applause. This painfully rehearsed brand of Tipper Gore-style concern trolling has been the defining outsider critique of hip-hop for going on four decades and relies on its own history of narrowly focused racism to disregard an entire artform—see: NWA, “Cop Killer,” Chief Keef, and everything in between.
While arguments over what is and is not and is maybe but also not really hip-hop are dumb, that’s not even what Cudi’s doing in his pursuit for Serious Artist cred. What Cudi’s doing is making a case against hip-hop as art in a bullheaded attempt to remold it in his own image. Cudi even goes so far to claim that, if not for the imagined moral fortitude that keeps him from rapping about his collection of ridiculous cars, there “would be no Drake.” A statement rooted in understandable jealousy since Cudi is an off-brand Drake, minus the paradoxical joie de vivre and talent. The jealousy is made only more human by their shared lineage.
continued:
http://noisey.vice.com/blog/why-kid-cudi-doesnt-get-to-write-the-rules-of-hip-hop
Prompted by Arsenio to look into the camera and solemnly explain what hip-hop “needs”, Cudi said “I think the braggadocio, money, cash, hoes thing needs to be deaded,” to enthusiastic studio audience applause. This painfully rehearsed brand of Tipper Gore-style concern trolling has been the defining outsider critique of hip-hop for going on four decades and relies on its own history of narrowly focused racism to disregard an entire artform—see: NWA, “Cop Killer,” Chief Keef, and everything in between.
While arguments over what is and is not and is maybe but also not really hip-hop are dumb, that’s not even what Cudi’s doing in his pursuit for Serious Artist cred. What Cudi’s doing is making a case against hip-hop as art in a bullheaded attempt to remold it in his own image. Cudi even goes so far to claim that, if not for the imagined moral fortitude that keeps him from rapping about his collection of ridiculous cars, there “would be no Drake.” A statement rooted in understandable jealousy since Cudi is an off-brand Drake, minus the paradoxical joie de vivre and talent. The jealousy is made only more human by their shared lineage.
continued:
http://noisey.vice.com/blog/why-kid-cudi-doesnt-get-to-write-the-rules-of-hip-hop
I couldn't tell, but I think that cac knows how to use a thesaurus
I want my hip-hop to fit the stereotypes I know all black people do"
