With their debut alternative rock album dropping Tuesday [February 28] Kid Cudi and Dot Da Genius (WZRD) sat down with Joe Lepuma of Complex Magazine to discuss the disc's recording process, their growth as artists, their friendship and a lot more.
Check out an excerpt from the interview:
There’s a video of you guys in 2006, you’re getting off the subway in East New York, and I think you just got back from a meeting with Atlantic records. Cudi is getting a loose cigarette and is saying to the camera: “You have to maintain, and shit’s going to pop. All we’re going to do is get our people out this b*tch. The grind’s going to pay off.”
[Both laugh]
Six years later you guys are in a much better situation, and about to release a joint project. It seems like the grind is paying off.
Kid Cudi: It’s good, man. We still ain’t reach the goal yet. We just took great leaps towards it, and it’s a never-ending challenge. We always want to keep pushing ourselves and keep taking everything to the next level. We still have families to take care of, and we just have a lot more responsibility. We got ourselves up out, and we’re still trying to get our families right. It’s just cool to know that that was what, six years ago? We weren’t just talking sh*t. We weren’t just putting another video on the Internet. I put it on my MySpace. Remember?
Dot Da Genius: I’m trying to, because there was a couple of videos that we put out that were so under the radar that people probably still have never seen...
Right. That’s what I’m saying. That was like a throwback clip. It still only has 68K views, which is pretty small.
DDG: It’s inspirational. Even when you see us back then, we look completely different. Cudi had golds in his mouth. [Laughs.]
KC: I had two parts and sh*t, before it became a trend. Way ahead of my time [Laughs.]. And I’ll never get credit [Laughs.]. Nah, I’m just fucking around, man. But yeah, the swag was different. We were young. We were just trying to figure out who we are as human beings. It’s cool that I can look back at that. I was 22 years old in that video—young as f*ck. I’m 28 now
DDG: We were like dreaming of what we could be. I was in college still. We actually went to my dorm and then went back to the hood after that.
KC: Yeah, to make music.
What were those days like for you guys?
KC: It was pretty cool. We were brothers, for a long time.
DDG: Pretty much. And that’s the vibe that we had in the house. The way my dad is, he didn’t hold back.
I understand your family pretty much took Cudi in...
KC: His dad is the most f*cking amazing man I’ve ever met. I haven’t been that close to a father figure since my father died. So like, this man was the first real father I was around since my own. My dad was a stern dad. He was just like Dot’s dad in a lot of ways, as far as being strict and not f*cking around. But like, the Nigerian culture is completely different. I took a lot of life lessons about being a man from watching his dad and learning from his dad and getting scolded by his dad. I’ll never forget that. It was just a really fucking intense time for us as young men, but we definitely had a strong role model. I envied that. I envied Dot’s family. It was really nice to be in such a loving home. It was dope.
You’ve said that you’ve had angels in your life, and last time we spoke Vada was just a little baby. Now that she’s growing up, and she’s talking, and you can buy her sneakers and stuff—how is that for you?
KC:Let me tell you something about Vada, man. She’s so cool. It’s the most wild thing. I love her to death, and every time I’m around her it’s a crazy experience, because she’s growing and learning right there in front of you. When I come and pick her up, she just screams out of control and runs at me. That’s a small thing that most people might not really... But for me that’s like, “Aw, shit! She’s excited to see me.” [Laughs] It’s dope,
Let’s talk about the Pink tattoo. People will look at it and say, “Oh, he’s a big fan of Pink Floyd.” But there’s more to it, right? There’s similarities between that Pink character and you.
KC:Yeah.
When did you decide you wanted to get that, and what similarities do you see between that character and yourself?
KC: Well, I decided to get it right before we left for Australia. There was like two days of thinking about it, and then I finally just made up my mind and got it. A year and a half ago, I had my Pink moment. I connected with the isolation. I had a lot of times where I didn’t leave my house for weeks. In New York, I would just stay in the house, order in, just sit there and keep myself in this little cave, this cage, and I liked it there. It was just sh*tty conditions, and I shouldn’t have been doing that. I was just so afraid of the world and judgment and whatever—and the responsibility, that I shielded myself away from the world in the same way that Pink did. Pink didn’t make it out, but I did. Like I said, a lot of my heroes are dead. He was a fictional character, but it’s based on these band members’ real lives. I still feel like I’m doing it for Pink. He didn’t make it, but I did. I broke down the wall and got through it and survived, and I’m here.
People were really affected by the Ben Breedlove situation. The young man with the heart condition who saw you in one of his dreams after passing out in the hallway of his high school. He made a video saying you were his favorite rapper, and then sadly passed away a couple weeks after. That was some heavy stuff.
KC: That situation I don’t really even like to talk about, because if you could imagine how it would feel to be put in a situation like that? It was just such a powerful video, man. I’ve never been affected by something like that, ever.It really hit me hard. In life you come to that point where you’re just trying to love yourself a little bit better. Now I don’t feel like I love myself enough, and when the kids say that they love me, and they adore me in that way, it’s just overwhelming. Because it’s like, “Man, these kids really care about me.” It’s like, How could they love me so much, and they don’t know me? It’s really humbling and it makes me want to be a better person. That sh*t just f*cked me up. I don’t even want to talk about it anymore.
To read the rest of the interview head over to Complex.
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