Raury needs more time

Like him or not, Kid Cudi changed the game when his MySpace sleeper hit “Day'N'Nite” absolutely took over in 2008. As legend has it, Cudi chased Kanye down after the rapper visited the Bape store he was working at in New York and gave him his mixtape, A Kid Named Cudi. The fully-formed project impressed the Chi-town heavyweight and he promptly signed Cudi to his G.O.O.D. Music label.  Cudi later went on to record two classic records in Man On The Man I and II, but has since become a shadow of his former self, releasing flop after flop. Part of that has to do with burning bridges with his two best producers, Plain Pat and Emile Hanie, but most of the problem can be attributed to the fact that he has since surrounded himself with a bunch of yes-men who don't call out his shitty production and creative decisions.

A quick perusal through his Twitter will leave you drowning in compliments from fans he has retweeted. Simply put, Cudi has become too comfortable releasing mediocre music to a fan base that doesn't have the discerning taste level and call him out on it.

This editorial isn't meant to bash Cudi, whose earlier output I will always enjoy, but rather critique the rise to fame of a poorly-disguised insufferable hybrid by the name of Raury. The young Atlanta native has been championed by what is normally my favourite music blog, Pigeons and Planes, a website worth mentioning because of its affiliation with the media empire that broke Cudi to the masses, Complex.

For this reason it's sad to see that the blog hasn't picked up on Raury's poorly contrived sensibility that only draws on the worst bits of Cudi, who he idolizes. Watch any interview with the smug artist (having a song in a Scarlett Johansson movie will do that to you) and your eyes will permanently roll to the back of your head at his replies.

I can see stoned high school bros falling for his pseudo-philosophical posturing, but this guy is just so full of shit it's sad. What's worse is that he really sees himself as a musical messiah and talks about how he is bringing a genre-less approach to his craft that will change the game.  This guy actually covered the worst Nirvana song ("Smells Like Teen Spirit”) at his recent New York show and then took his "indigos" (what he calls his fans) for ice cream. It’s reminiscent of when Cudi dropped that ill-advised WZRD rock album and went to shit.

I get that he’s still young and needs time to learn, but hold off on hastily placing him on the throne before he’s actually proven himself.