I am usually one of the last guys to hear about a good thing, but this is just ridiculous how late I was on Kid Cudi. I had heard his single and I will admit it sounded different than a lot of the mainstream music that was coming out at the time.

It wasn’t until recently though, when a friend of mine had bought the album and told me I needed to really give this guy an ear, and not just a few radio waves, that I really started appreciating his music and his entire thought process.

Cudi is really something special compared to so much of the music that is out there at this moment. This is not about separating himself in a group of millions and millions of identical twins all trying to get the same bottle; this really seems like a confused poet has been handed a microphone and is going through this mind bending sequence of events that eventually leads to a song.

He finds himself working under the same team as Kanye West, but does not seem to be the same artist at all. It could just be his demeanor that pulls him away from that uncomfortably arrogant tractor beam that Kanye has constructed over time.

He does not even have to rely on the ideas that seem to constantly be relayed from one rap “artist” to the next.

This is why it so hard for me to put him in the same category or even sentence as other rappers of this time. It seems to be such a hard task for me to define him as either a rapper, a hip-hop artist or just something completely different all together – a genre all to himself.

His entire style is completely different than what others in this same field seem to be portraying with their music.

He is not ahead of his time or some odd statement like that; he is willing to take his words and speech to something that is easily deciphered and not ambiguous on accident like so many around him.

It is a completely melting experience like when I listen to Sufjan Stevens or eat Waffle House cheese eggs at 3:30 in the morning.

There always seem to be this point in time when you come to a crossroad that proves to be whether you are going to stay true to this artist or bolt before it gets too serious.

That moment happened a couple of weeks ago when I was listening to some freestyle by Cudi.

As he was sitting at the table, he closed his eyes and just went right into it and never found himself faltering at any point.

He just felt it, he didn’t think about it or debate it within his mind, it was just there and he laid it out for the listeners.

There is this outcry for someone to come out that is truly a hip-hop artist or for someone to save what is left of this genre of music.

Maybe this guy could do it and start a trend of individualist hop-hop that leads to something bigger; maybe even bigger than just a collage of willing rappers trying to get a quick buck and someone who is willing to work at a craft.

Then again, maybe he is just another rapper out for the fame and to accumulate as much fortune as possible before his name dries up.

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