Scott Ramon Seguro Mescudi, (born January 30, 1984) better known by his stage name Kid Cudi ( - Kid Cuddy) (sometimes stylised as KiD CuDi), or also known as Cudder is an American rapper and singer. He first gained major attention after the release of his debut mixtape A Kid Named Cudi. In 2009, his single "Day 'n' Nite" reached the top ten of the Billboard Hot 100 and Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs charts. "Day 'n' Nite" is part of Cudi's debut album Man on the Moon: The End of Day. Cudi has also worked with Kanye West, Common, and other artists signed to the GOOD Music label.

Early life

Kid Cudi was born in Cleveland, Ohio and raised in the suburb of Shaker Heights. His father, a house painter, substitute teacher and World War II Air Force veteran, was of Mexican-Native American ancestry while his mother, a middle-school choir teacher, was of African-American ancestry. Mescudi's father passed away from cancer when he was eleven years old; his death would have a significant effect on his personality and subsequently his music.

Career

Music career

Mescudi attended Roxboro Middle School and Shaker Heights High School for two years before transferring to Solon High School. It was towards the end of high school that Mescudi first began rapping, inspired by alternative hip hop groups such as The Pharcyde and A Tribe Called Quest. After earning his GED, he studied film at the University of Toledo, then dropped out after his freshman year. He moved to Brooklyn, New York at the age of 20 to pursue a music career. He worked at the Bape store in New York City while he was there. He released his first mixtape, A Kid Named Cudi, in collaboration with New York street-wear brand 10.Deep as a free download. The mixtape quickly caught the attention of Kanye West, which in turn spawned his signing to GOOD Music later that year.

Kid Cudi was featured on Kanye West's 2008 album, 808s & Heartbreak, singing with West on the track "Welcome to Heartbreak", and helping with songwriting on "Heartless" and "Paranoid". "Welcome to Heartbreak" peaked at #87 on the Pop 100, and music videos for both songs have been released. He was then featured many medias such as XXL and BBC News's Sound of 2009 poll of up-and-coming acts. MTV News also reported on Cudi on a series of reports MCs To Watch In 2009.



His first television appearance was at the 2008 MTV Video Music Awards, alongside Travis Barker and DJ AM. On February 17, 2009, he appeared on Snoop Dogg's MTV talk show Dogg After Dark performing "Day 'n' Nite" at the end of the show. Two days later on February 19, 2009, Cudi appeared on BET's 106 & Park with Kanye West to debut the video of "Day 'n' Nite" . On March 16, 2009 Kid Cudi performed on mtvU's Spring Break special, and the next day he performed three songs on NBC's Last Call with Carson Daly. He has also appeared as a musical guest on The Late Show with David Letterman and Jimmy Kimmel Live.

Kid Cudi also made a cameo appearance next to Solange in the video for the song "T.O.N.Y." in February 2009, and later in the Black Eyed Peas' video for "I Gotta Feeling", with David Guetta. He has also been on two magazine covers, Complex Magazine (August/September 2009) and URB Magazine (August 2009). Bape awarded Cudi his own t-shirt in September 2009, in reward for his music and past employment there when living in New York City

Cudi's debut album Man on the Moon: The End of Day was released on Universal Motown Records on September 15, 2009 and sold 104,419 copies in the first week and charted at #4. The album's first single was Day 'N' Nite, and is Kid Cudi's greatest commercial success thus far, the song charting well both in the USA and in Europe. The next single was "Make Her Say" (originally titled "I Poke Her Face"), which features a sample from Lady Gaga's song "Poker Face" and performances by Kanye West and Common.

On February 25, 2009, Cudi self-leaked a "teaser trailer" for the upcoming Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen film using his song "Sky Might Fall" in the background, later he posted that he made the trailer himself and now was in talks to possibly make it official.

With Emile, Cudi produced an exclusive single called "Switchin Lanes" for the video game Midnight Club: Los Angeles, part of its "South Central Premium Upgrade" Downloadable Content (DLC) which came out March 19, 2009 for the PlayStation 3 and March 27, 2009 for the Xbox 360.

He revealed information about his future project via his blog, saying that another solo album was planned for release after the collaboration with Chip Tha Ripper and will be followed with a collaboration project with electrorock duo Ratatat Cudi joined rapper Asher Roth for the Great Hangover concert tour during the summer of 2009.Kid Cudi featured on the highly anticipated Jay-Z album The Blueprint 3, on the song "Already Home". In a recent interview, Cudi announced that the follow-up to his debut album will be a collaboration album called Cudder. He stated he would like to work with Snoop Dogg, Travis Barker, Clipse, Jay-Z, Drake, Green Day, Kings of Leon, Robin Thicke, and The Killers on his album. He also stated he would like to have to have the album out by summertime 2010 at the latest. During a concert in Toronto, Canada Mescudi performed a direct follow up to the song "Enter Galactic (Love Connection Part 1)" from his debut album Man On The Moon: The End Of Day. The new song entitled Love Connection Part 2 is suspected to be in the second installment in the Man On The Moon trilogy entitled The Ghost in the Machine. He has stated he is currently thinking of the third album title in the Man On The Moon trilogy.

Acting career

Kid Cudi announced that he will have a lead role in the upcoming comedy series called "How to Make it in America", produced by Mark Wahlberg.

Discography

Studio Albums

• Man on the Moon: The End of Day (2009)
• Cudder (2010)
• Man on the Moon: The Ghost in the Machine (TBA)

Mixtapes

• A Kid Named Cudi (2008)

Other

• Dat Kid From Cleveland (2009)
• Stoner Charm (2009)
• On Another Planet (2009)
• The Demo Tape (2009)

Awards and nominations

References

External links