2 Be Continuum, Kid Cudi’s rock band, has dropped its first single. It’s called “Perfect Is the Word” and is a brooding, fuzzy number that’s much more promising than any “rapper tries new genre” project has any right to be. It also comes with the following preemptively defensive tweets: “If you want my old shit, buy my old albums …. Im moving forward, all w/ me LETS GO! Life is about evolving, which is why im successful,” and “people acting like im on the radio or something ha i make tribeca film festival shit lol.” It’ll become apparent sooner rather than later what Cudi means by “rock band” (Lil Wayne, who hopped from genre to genre on Rebirth, could never quite figure that out; Kanye had a pretty clear non-rap vision for 808s & Heartbreak, which ended up being more influential than one would have thought at the time of its release), but right now he’s not miles removed from the more somber numbers he released in his previous incarnation. That is to say: Cudi’s never been as interested in flow as he is in mood, and whatever departure he has in mind might be much less thorny than previously expected. As always: take a listen and then feel free to violently disagree.
Bonus! Here’s Kid Cudi baby’s exclusive reaction to “Perfect Is the Word”: