By Steven Roberts
Kanye West's G.O.O.D. Music label runs the gamut from well-known MCs like Common to lesser-known artists like Consequence, Big Sean and GLC. Now, Kid Cudi is emerging in the mainstream — with his hit song "Day 'N' Nite" and appearances at mtvU Spring Break and South by Southwest — and it looks like the future of Kanye's label is in good hands.
"My job is to make not only myself look good, but to make 'Ye look good," Cudi said. "I tell him all the time: 'Don't worry, I got you. I'm going to make you look better than what you look right now.' "
The Ohio MC said he and West are building toward the future. "He's like my Quincy Jones, and I'm the Michael Jackson," Kid said. "Eventually, I want to be the Quincy Jones and find my Michael Jackson. It's a circle, the circle of life, circle of music, circle of good things."
Cudi said he was invited to Hawaii to record tracks for West's 808s & Heartbreak, and Kanye rewarded him with a chain. Cudi was grateful, and he texted West to thank him. "I definitely told him that I appreciated him more than he knew and just to say 'thank you.' He hit me back, like, 'Man, you inspire me too,' " Cudi recalled, saying he was shocked by his response.
Kid said West thanked him for the future of G.O.O.D. Music: "When he told me that I inspired him on his project, and he's thanking me for adding years to the brand of G.O.O.D. Music, that's just so crazy."
The first time I heard the track "Day 'N' Night" was when my friend DJ Jus Ske played it at a club in New York last year. The club erupted almost immediately, which is rare for a new track from a relative unknown. For weeks I played that track over and over. And then, when I heard the opening lines, "We born to die ... so I get high just like I'm born to fly" on the Jim Jones remix, I became even more obsessed