At the age of 15, Kid Cudi recorded his first song on a karaoke machine in his friend’s basement. It was a freestyle over the beat to Wu-Tang Clan’s “It's Yourz,” an undeniable hip-hop classic. From recording on a karaoke machine in his friend’s basement in Cleveland to packing venues all over the country with his Fools Gold cohorts, Kid Sister, A-Trak, and the Cool Kids, Cudi is clearly living out his dream, even though his journey to underground stardom hasn’t been an easy one.

It’s difficult to compare Cudi to any of today’s marginally successful artists, mainly because he’s made his music with the intention of developing his own sound. Kid Cudi hasn’t even released an album yet, but already holds a spot on my most anticipated albums of 2008, largely because of a track called “Day N Night,” a spaced out, R&B influenced tale of loneliness and isolation, something not often heard in the world of hip-hop anymore. After the song was released last spring, Kid Cudi began to receive acclaim from various bloggers and fans who refreshed his Myspace page numerous times, just to hear that song again.

HHNLive.com writer Aaron Frank sits down for a chat with Fools Gold artist K.i.D CuDi. Read on as CuDi tells you why he's about to own the game, how he came up with "Day 'N' Nite" on his Sidekick, working with DJ A-Trak and much more.

K.i.D CuDi on what makes him unique: "I never go in the studio thinking about how I’m about to get mad money. When I’m in the studio, I’m concentrating on making something powerful, something that’s beyond words."

Aaron Frank: So what made you decide to leave Cleveland for New York?

Kid Cudi: Well there was this period where I was doing a lot of recording a bunch of different showcases and stuff like that. But I felt like I need to get out of Cleveland, because I needed something to inspire me and I always wanted to move anyways. I did a few shows in Cleveland, but nothing really major started happening until I got out here.

AF: Have you always been rapping and singing or did that not happen until later?

Cudi: Not really. I was, but it wasn’t like how it is now. I wanted everyone to respect me at first, so pretty much all I was doing was spittin. But then I started to feel like I needed to make the records I wanted to make, instead of what I thought people wanted to hear. It’s like, I just let the beat come in and tell me what to do. If the beat tells me I need to sing a melody, then I’m gonna do that. If the beat tells me I need to rap, then I’m gonna do that.

AF: So who are your main influences then when it comes to singing and rapping?

Cudi: Well, I used to listen to a lot of Pharcyde and A Tribe Called Quest, because that’s what my older brother was into. But my big brother was into the hardcore hip-hop, a lot of the west coast shit like Snoop and NWA, but a lot of down south stuff too, like UGK and Scarface. But I’ve got influences from all types of music. It started with hip-hop, but then I started to get into the rock n roll and alternative rock and that’s what really fueled the whole singing thing for a while. It just kinda made me do whatever I want. I got this idea that I was pretty much gonna do whatever I want and make some good shit. Instead of making music for just one genre, why not try to incorporate a bunch of different genres? The Roots, Pharcyde, and A Tribe Called Quest really influenced my flow and my sound though.

AF: When you started getting into rock more, who were some of the bands that made you want to sing more and just develop your own style?

Cudi: The first band that I really got into when I first got into rock was the Crash Test Dummies and that was when I was in like the 4th grade. After that, towards like high school or whatever, I got into the Red Hot Chili Peppers real heavy. They really inspired me, because their shit is like next level, but after that, I got into Coldplay. And I think that’s what got me into really trying to make like powerful melodies. Red Hot Chili Peppers told me to make something with a cool vibe and Coldplay made me want to make my music just surreal. So I just kinda blended the two influences together and came up with the way that I wanted to sing, but not on some T-Pain shit, just singing whatever. Like I really wanted to go hard and come up with something that would sound like a real concert.

AF: Do you remember the first record you ever recorded?

Cudi: I recorded my first record ever with one of my homies that lived on my block. He had one of those karaoke machines and we did a freestyle over the Wu-Tang “It's Yourz” beat. That was the first thing I ever recorded and I think I was about 15 at the time.

AF: So how did you eventually hook up with A-Trak and Fools Gold?

Cudi: I initially ran into Plain Pat at a meeting I had at Def Jam in 2006. And me and him just stayed in touch. He stopped working at Def Jam shortly after that and we just kept in contact, but we just got the idea that we wanted to do a project together. And initially, it was just gonna be a mixtape, because this was right after the Can’t Tell Me Nothing mixtape came out. But after that, I just kept recording more and more album joints and he was feelin all of them so I just asked him to be my manager and he was cool with it. So we solidified that and played some joints for A-Trak later on and he was feelin them, so we asked what was good with Fools Gold and he was just ready to put us down.

AF: Was there any particular reason you wanted to sign with Fools Gold, which is a relatively new indie label, rather than an established or major label?

Cudi: Well, A-Trak really has big dreams for the label and anybody that wants to have a successful and versatile label has to have a whole bunch of different vibes. And he already has Kid Sister, and she’s killin it in the whole genre of music that she’s doing, with the whole electro-pop thing. But you need something else, and it balances things out, having me and Kid Sister, because he’s got two artists right now, that can spearhead the label and take it to whole ‘nother level, not just in the clubs. I always represent the underground in whatever I do. A-Trak was tryin to get it poppin. I believed in the movement and he was just a cool cat. He was one of the first guys to ever spin my record. He spun “Day N Night” at Kanye’s music video premiere and that shit was a big move, because people like Kanye heard it. But even though A-Trak had heard all my joints that I recorded with Pat, he’d never heard “Day N Night” before and I just asked him to play my record and he was just like “Fuck it” and spun it. He actually played it twice. So it’s like, I’m always gonna appreciate that, but all the other labels were just stuntin at the same time and were passin me up for some shit that would be easy to sell, like some ringtone shit. So I said “Fuck them” and decided to go with this indie shit, because as long as the music is hot, it’s gonna speak for itself and it’ll get played.

AF: So what was it like for you on the Fools Gold Tour? You pretty much went all over the country and back to Canada for that one.

Cudi: The tour was amazing. The west coast loved me. New York loved me. It was really dope to see people’s reactions to the record and to see people singing along. I was on the tour and people were singing along and the record, at the time, wasn’t even really out there like that. Like if anybody heard the record, it was off of my Myspace. And to see people singing the songs, only off of hearing it on my Myspace, just really threw me for a loop and it let me know that I was really doing something that was powerful. It made me feel really good and it was just an amazing experience, besides the fact that I got to crowd-surf in LA. It was a really dope experience though and knowing that I’ve got more shows coming up, I feel like 08 is going to be an amazing year.

AF: So, on to “Day N Night,” which is probably your most popular song out right now. I just found out about it a few months ago and felt like I had been missing out, so when did you actually record that song?

Cudi: I recorded that back in March. It was like two days prior to the party that I was talking about and whenever I took it to the party and A-Trak spun it, it was still a rough mix and it hadn’t been mixed down or anything. I’ve been sitting on that record for a while, but people are starting to come around to it. It takes a record like “Day N Night” a while to build up some energy, but once it gets going, it’s only gonna get bigger and bigger. I don’t want to make something hot that’s gonna fade out.

AF: I don’t want to say that the song is depressing, but there’s a lot of raw emotion on that song. What was your frame of mind like when you were writing it?

Cudi: At that time, I was really fucked up financially. I was going through a lot of stressful shit. Basically, I was fucked up, I was broke, I lost my job, and I couldn’t find a job. It was just one of those records I wrote to vent. I wasn’t even thinking it was gonna be a hit record, but I just needed something to vent. And I actually didn’t think anybody would fuck with it, so I didn’t even think too hard about it. It’s crazy because the records that you don’t think too hard about end up being your biggest records and that’s where my head was at. My homeboy’s dad had a security company and that was like the only job I could get at the time. So I’m sitting in the little shitty ass security booth, which was just mad cold, and I was on my Sidekick and I just started making the little melody on my phone. And then I recorded the melody on my phone and just looped it and started writing lyrics to it. So I actually had “Day N Night” written before my man O-Dot even did the beat. But I gave him what I had on my Sidekick and just a rough idea of the verses and everything fit perfectly. So that’s the whole story behind that.

AF: That’s pretty crazy man. I hope that song picks up even more, because it’s not too often you hear such personal lyrics with content that so many people can relate to.

Cudi: Yeah, I see it getting bigger. And once we do the video at the end of this month or the beginning of next month, I think more people are gonna come around to it. You know, some people need the visual and everything to really get the feel of the song, and since we’re gonna have that on MTV and BET and everything, it’s gonna be a wrap. It’s gonna be on a whole nother level and that’s where you’re gonna see a major change. “Day N Night” is getting spins off the strength of blogs and my Myspace. I haven’t been doing any promotion. You know how some people leave comments and post banners on your shit, but I don’t even have access to a computer. I added a bunch of people when I first got on there, but after that I pretty much just let all the traffic come to me. So it’s all been like word of mouth type shit, which is really dope, because that means you really got something, especially when people are talking you up and hittin you off the strength of a Myspace page. It’s a real good look and one of the reasons I made that song was because I know there are a lot of people out there that think and feel like me. I’m a different type of person. My mind and the way I think, I feel like it’s different from most people, but at the same time, I know that there’s a lot of other people out there that are just like me. There’s a large number of people out there that aren’t being spoken for and need records like this to get them through the day, to get them through shit. They need something with some passion, and as simple as the record is, it’s powerful. And it actually is a real depressing record, but by the third verse you hear me just kinda embracing all that shit and trying not to let it get me down. I’ve had people tell me that they go to my Myspace and just refresh it over and over again.

AF: Yeah, I know that since I posted it back in October, it’s stayed as one of my top posts on the site. Then I posted the remix a couple weeks ago with that A-Trak interview and that’s been staying up there too.

Cudi: Well that’s good news. You all haven’t heard the official remix though, from the dude that originally produced it, Dot Da Genius. This is a new one, and I think we’re just gonna wait until we release the album in September for that. And on the remix, I’m actually rapping. I think it’s kinda wack to sing and rap on the same record. I’d rather just do one thing or the other.

AF: You mentioned Dot Da Genius, who is one of your main producers. Can you tell me a little bit more about him? When did you all start working together?

Cudi: Yeah, we really take our work together seriously. Our chemistry when we work together is like no other. He’s like the only person that read my mind. When I beatbox something, he can create the exact same shit. He’s classically trained, been playing the piano since he was 7, and the kid is major. A lot of people don’t know about him yet, but eventually he’s gonna be a problem. He’s the future of this producing shit and I’m not just saying that because he did my records. I feel privileged to have been able to work with him. It was a great situation. A lot of artists have trouble finding producers that they want to work with, but with him, it was like a no brainer. We just groove together musically, so he’s definitely dope. You should definitely be looking out for him.

AF: Can you tell us a little bit more about what we can expect from the album?

Cudi: The album is just magnificent. If you have a crazy imagination, you’re just gonna love this album and if you don’t have it, then the album is gonna force you to imagine some crazy stuff. It’s gonna train your mind to think outside the box and I think it’s really gonna take people on a ride. The whole album is cinematic. I know a lot of people try to make their videos and stuff like that, but you can just feel that from the album. And I'm a movie buff and an actor too, so you can hear my passion for film in the music. As soon as the intro comes in, it puts you in the ‘Man On The Moon’s’ mind. It puts you on that planet and on that level. And it’s like from beginning to end, I can’t even explain it. All I can say is “Grammy's.” It’ll be coming out in September and I think everyone’s gonna be really pleased. And the fact that it’s still early and I’m still recording all the time, it might be ten times better by the time it’s finished.

AF: So can we expect like more personal and emotional tracks like “Day N Night” or what’s the content gonna be like?

Cudi: With my music, my whole thing is putting myself and my personal life into it. My album is like a diary, because once you listen to it from beginning to end, you’re gonna feel like you know me. And that’s why I praise people that have been feeling my record, because they know me a little bit just from “Day N Night.” When you hear the whole album, you’re gonna say “Yeah. His name is Scott. He’s got two brothers and an older sister.” I’m putting it all out there. It’s like my gift to the world. I need to put myself out there and I feel like there’s a lot of people that can relate to my life and just me as a person and I need to put that out there.

AF: Well it sounds like an interesting project. It’s gonna be called Man On The Moon?

Cudi: Yeah, it’s called Man On The Moon, and I might add a subtitle, but that’s definitely the title.

AF: What would you say the main difference is between you and a lot of these popular artists on the radio and MTV these days?

Cudi: I just think that people go in focused on how many records they’re gonna sell. I think people need to put that shit out of their mind, because it affects the music and it takes away from being an individual and being creative, which is what an artist is supposed to be. I never go in the studio thinking about how I’m about to get mad money. When I’m in the studio, I’m concentrating on making something powerful, something that’s beyond words. And that’s what I think is lacking. There’s only a couple people out there with that real passion. I’d say with 90% of the game, there’s no passion.