Kid Cudi | The Doors To Success

Kid Cudi, born Scott Ramon Seguro Muscuti, is a unique artist who has made a significant impact on the music industry. His journey, from his humble beginnings in Cleveland to his rise to fame in New York, has been marked by personal struggles and industry challenges. Despite these, he has managed to create a unique sound that has influenced many artists. His career has seen highs and lows, including chart-topping hits, a Grammy win, and personal battles with mental health, but he continues to make music that resonates with his fans.
Kid Cudi, a popular artist, has been making headlines for his unique fashion choices, such as wearing a dress on SNL and nail polish. Some people believe these choices are part of a humiliation ritual, while others see it as self-expression. These events have sparked debates and conspiracy theories online. However, Cudi insists that his actions are not part of any ritual but are simply ways to express himself.

When I was young, I listened to a lot of music, and honestly, I still do. I was always open to whatever was new and just sounded different from the usual. One day, younger me was glued to the TV, watching music videos, and an experience that I gotta say hit different compared to scrolling through YouTube. Anyway, I just remember hearing, I immediately started bobbing my head and from that moment, I knew this dude was gonna be pretty big. That artist, of course, is Kid Cudi. The single premiered officially in 2008, paired with some trippy visuals, and right away, his abstract and introspective approach to hip hop stood out.

In a way, Cudi’s come up is the kind of story most rappers dream of, but the years that followed, maybe not so much. So join me as we apply the doors to success to Kid Cudi’s career and see if he’s stepped through any. If you’re new here, the doors to success is this idea that at some point in their career, entertainers face a choice between three metaphorical doors. Some of these doors can lead to huge success, but often come at the cost of your morals. Others lead to tougher, less glamorous paths, but might preserve your soul in the process.

I figured I’d address this, but there’s no specific order to the doors. Labeling them as door 1, 2, and 3 is just for simplicity’s sake. Door 1 is the independent grind, hustling solo against the industry’s machine. Door 2 refers to the fruity activities, tied to humiliation rituals or compromising moments that make you question one’s character. Then there’s door 3, the sacrifice, where rumors go around about losing someone close to lock in that spotlight. But before we get into all of that, let’s do the usual and get a little bit of a backstory. Before the world knew him as Kid Cudi, he was Scott Ramon Seguro Muscuti, born January 30, 1984 in Cleveland, Ohio.

He grew up in the suburbs of Shaker Heights and Solon as the youngest of four with two older brothers and a sister. His mother Elsie was a choir teacher, his father Lindberg, a house painter, Air Force veteran, and substitute teacher. Cudi was of African American and Mexican descent, a blend of cultures that would later echo through his music. When he was 11, his father sadly passed away from cancer. It wasn’t just a loss, it was a rupture that cast a shadow over his youth and deeply shaped the artists he’d become. Cudi started in high school at Shaker Heights but transferred to Solon where he was eventually expelled after threatening the principal.

He later earned his GED but it was clear that the traditional path wasn’t his. He enrolled in film school at the University of Toledo but dropped out after a year. He considered the Navy next but a juvenile record closed that door too. At this point in his life he knew he still had something to offer so in 2005 he up and left Cleveland behind and moved to New York City with $500 and a dream. He landed in the South Bronx crashing with his uncle, jazz drummer Khalil Matty while working retail jobs in Manhattan.

Eventually he moved to Brooklyn with his future longtime collaborator Dot DeGeneres. Cudi had started rapping in 2003 inspired by the likes of The Far Side and A Tribe Called Quest. His sound didn’t quite fit the mold and that was the point. In 2006 Fate stepped in. While browsing CDs at Virgin Megastore he spotted Kanye West and he introduced himself offering up his music. Later while working at Bape he helped Kanye shop only to realize he forgot to remove a sensor tag and then he ended up sprinting through Soho after Ye laughing it off. It seemed small then but it was just the beginning of something real.

In 2007 Cudi uploaded Day and Night to MySpace. It quietly bubbled through blogs and playlists until it caught the ear of Kanye’s manager, Plain Pat. Soon after Cudi signed to Good Music. By mid-2008 he dropped his breakout mixtape A Kid Named Cudi, executive produced by Plain Pat and Emily Haney. This helped him put him on the map. Kanye brought him into the studio to reference hooks for the blueprint 3 but Cudi quickly became a key voice during the making of 808’s and Heartbreak. His fingerprints are all over Heartless, Welcome to Heartbreak, Paranoid, and Robocop.

By the 2008 VMAs Cudi was on stage with Travis Barker and DJ AM. The buzz was real, Rolling Stone, Vibe, XXL, they all had him as the next up. In 2009 he appeared on XXL’s freshman list alongside names like Acehood and Currency. But his sound stood apart, moody, melodic, and introspective. Though he was often labeled as emo rap by some, his vulnerability, the whole lonely stoner ethos of Day and Night connected. It would lay the groundwork for an entire wave of artists, one who clearly took notes, Travis Scott. That September he released his debut album Man on the Moon, The End of Day, selling over 100,000 copies in its first week and debuting at number 4 on the Billboard 200.

Day and Night was the spark but tracks like Soundtrack to My Life and Pursuit of Happiness followed, both of which still sound just as nostalgic and also ahead of their time. His follow up Man on the Moon 2, The Legend of Mr. Rager took things darker. It included Erase Me featuring Kanye, at the time still a close collaborator and mentor. But by his third album, Indicud, Tensions had emerged. It would be his last project under good music. In 2014 Cudi admitted he was hurt to find himself featured on Kanye’s Yeezus via an old reference vocal, never being contacted for a proper session.

He explained how he felt both slighted and appreciative. By 2016, their frustration boiled over. Cudi took to Twitter calling out both Kanye and Drake, saying he was the culture. And yet, that same year, he and Kanye patched things up, eventually collaborating again on a joint project. But in 2022, their friendship took a turn, reportedly over Cudi’s ties to Pete Davidson during his relationship with the A’s ex, Kim Kardashian. Cudi’s journey was never typical. From chart-topping hits and a Grammy win to starring roles in creating Netflix’s Intergalactic, he’s kinda done it all, but beneath it was a quiet war.

As his fame grew, so did his internal battles, with depression, anxiety, and addiction. Quote, It wasn’t scary until later on in my life as I was Kid Cudi, he said. Eventually things got so dark he began plotting on how to end his life without anybody finding out. At 32, he checked into rehab, which was a turning point. Since leaving Good Music, Cudi has released his albums through his own label, Wicked Awesome Records, which he founded in 2011. His first full release under the imprint came in 2013 with Indicud, marking a clear shift from then on.

Wicked Awesome became the primary home for his music, with Republic Records stepping in for distribution after some corporate restructuring at Universal Motown. His newer music may not move the same commercial numbers, but it’s never been about the charts. Cudi had carved a lane that was uniquely his. He wasn’t just a rapper, in a way he was kind of a pioneer. Now as far as I can tell, Kid Cudi hasn’t walked through the so-called sacrifice store, arguably the darkest of the three, but he’s definitely shown signs of being compromised by the industry in other ways.

So let’s talk about what I call the Fruity Door, often viewed as a humiliation ritual. This is where you’ll see artists suddenly acting out of character, doing things far removed from the persona they built during their rise. And sure, artists evolve, no doubt, but since when did evolving mean acting like a fruitcake? That’s a pretty drastic shift if you ask me. Here’s what made me start connecting the dots, and by the end we’ll get to a little bit of the dramatic part. Let’s start with his cameo in the Need for Speed film back in 2014.

In the closing scenes of the film you can see Cudi in prison leading a dance routine, and at one point he tells another man to twerk. Now I can’t show the whole clip here due to copyright, but it’s easy to find. Some say he’s just acting, but that kind of proves my point, bending your image in morals for a check. But that’s just a preview. Later that same year, Cudi performed at Coachella wearing a crop top. Of course, Twitter went wild and reactions were mixed. Some called it sus, others applauded him for breaking stylistic norms.

And to be fair, in 2014, that moment was a spark, but it didn’t come close to what was coming 7 years later. By 2021, Cudi wasn’t necessarily topping charts, but he still had a solid fanbase. His focus seemed to shift toward a more ambitious project, an animated Netflix series paired with an album. A creative pivot for sure, but with the big moves often comes big rituals, and in this industry there tends to be a pattern, public embarrassment, in exchange for the next big career moment. So let me break it down. On April 10, 2021, about a year before Enter Galactic would drop, Cudi performed on SNL wearing a floral dress, dedicating the performance to Kurt Cobain.

The internet exploded. Theories started flying, most labeled it a humiliation ritual. Cudi responded to the backlash by dismissing the conspiracies and explaining that it was just self-expression and nothing more. By the summer of 2021, he was yet again in the headlines, this time for wearing nail polish, again stirring up enough debate that he turned off the comments on his post and lashed out at those who didn’t support his fashion choices. Cool, but then, just months later, at the CFDA Fashion Awards in New York, Cudi showed up in a full bridal gown, complete with makeup, holding hands with his designer.

Again, the headlines hit, and so did the conspiracies, likely another ritual, and another box checked. So here’s the question nobody really asked, why? Was it really just fashion and expression, or was it part of the price to secure a Netflix series? Because when you trace the timing, the visuals, the performances, it starts to look a lot more ritualistic than random. So let’s crunch some numbers. On April 10th, 2021, we saw Kid Cudi sporting the dress on SNL. What stood out to me is that this happened exactly 70 days before his 37th birthday, and fittingly enough, the word dress equals 70 in the ordinal cipher.

Now in the reduction ciphers, take a look. Kid Cudi, rapper, and dress all equal 34. That connection never hit me until recently. It might explain why so many rappers over the years have ended up rocking dresses. It’s not random. Remember, Cudi actually responded to the rumors about the dress being part of a humiliation ritual. Now get this, from his birthday to the SNL appearance is a span of 2 months and 12 days, which resembles the number 212, the exact value of humiliation ritual in the ordinal cipher. But it doesn’t stop there.

When you measure the time from the SNL appearance to when he wore that wedding dress later in 2021, it’s a span of 30 weeks and 4 days. Drop the 0, you’re left with 34 again. Same number we saw with dress rapper and Kid Cudi. Again, these moments always seem like carefully timed public humiliation events, traded for more career opportunities. And when you look at the numbers, notice wedding dress and humiliation match in 3 out of the 4 based ciphers. Now fast forward after this bizarre streak in 2021 with the nail polish, the dresses, you name it.

Cudi pops up in an Esquire shoot with blonde hair and a headline that read, Reborn. It’s like they’re outright telling you he’s revived his career, but only after publicly embarrassing himself. That photo on the right? Yeah, it’s wild and there’s really not much more to say. All of this in my opinion was to secure his 2022 animated series on Netflix, which by the way, released 34 weeks after his 38th birthday. Again, same pattern. He wore a dress twice before the release. Both instances went viral and stirred up major debate in the hip hop community.

The series also dropped on a date with 61 numerology, matching the name Kid Cudi. Further proof these releases are dropped by the numbers. Then a year later, he’s in a Calvin Klein fashion shoot, you guessed it, posing with the infamous one eye. The symbolism writes itself at this point. Look, take it how you want it. Fans always get butt hurt like I’m personally attacking their favorite artists, but I’m really just pointing out patterns and behaviors that usually get buried or brushed off. I still enjoy some of Cudi’s music, and I’ve never had a hard time separating the art from the artist, because I don’t worship celebrities.

But what do y’all think? Am I over analyzing things and Cudi’s just being a creative, vulnerable artist? Or has Bro been fondled with like so many others we’ve covered in this series, and had to take the fruity door for more longevity? Sound off in the comments down below. If you liked the video, do your boy a favor, hit that like button, share, and subscribe. It’s been ya boi Script, and I’m outta here. Peace. [tr:trw].