Kid Cudi Talks ‘Satellite Flight’, ‘Guilt Trip’, Justin Bieber & more



Скот поестнил внезапный релезенг своей негодной плостинке Satellite Flight, сообщил что недоволен тем как НЛК естпользовол его безценный бекгроундовый вокал но Yeezus и ХМО, зоверел что не колобобрироволсо с бебером и тому тогдалее. Цетируем.

Beyonce was the first major artist to drop an album online without warning. Now you’ve done the same thing with Satellite Flight and everybody’s like “you pulled a Beyonce.” That’s what it’s labeled as now. When did you have the idea? Did she inspire it?

Well, first off, let me just say the world can learn a lot from Beyonce. [Laughs.] The world can be a better place if we all just take a page from her book. So let’s just be clear on that. I think the industry is moving toward this point anyway. People have been talking about this for a while but it’s a gamble. Not everyone can do it. There are certain things that you need to have or it could fail miserably.

I was like, “Man, I’m tired of promoting and marketing an album. I just wanna give it.” This project isn’t something I was planning on doing. I just kinda did it, like, “Let’s see what happens if I do it this way.” It’s my fifth album. I was in concert in September. I had a couple songs. I had “Satellite Flight” and “Balmain Jeans” done at the time. I was just confident, and in the middle of the show I said, “I’m doing an EP and I won’t give any notice before it drops.” That was the only info I put out. I knew I was gonna do it around February—actually January was the target. I wanted to have it around my 30th birthday. Beyonce’s album came out around December. If I’d had a time machine I would’ve known, but her stuff was a surprise to all.

At the same time, watching Beyonce drop definitely gave me the confidence and let me know that it could be executed. Like, “Oh yes! someone was the guinea pig and it worked.” Perfect, now I can try. It’s a beautiful thing that it worked for me because I am not Beyonce. Maybe in my wildest dreams on my prettiest day. [Laughs.] But I don’t have her legendary-ness, like her fucking amazing abilities and her fans and the millions of people that follow her. So to see that it was able to work for someone like me… who still considers himself an underground, indie artist, is dope. People like to throw around mainstream but I think I’m only mainstream because of my affiliations.

My music and tone is very experimental. It’s saying something that you can have a successful project just off of pure artistry—unfiltered—and be successful. That you can release an EP like this and still have support. Instead of just dropping it out of nowhere, the Kid Cudi twist to it was that I opened up this two-hour window for people to know it was coming. So when it did drop, I had a bunch of people just waiting, ready to click their mouse and hit buy at midnight. As oppose to just dropping it at midnight and people just finding out. Beyonce can do that cause she’s so mega. I had to pull a different trick.

No matter what happens, this is more than I imagined. I just wanna take this time out to say everyone who supported me and who’s been there with me through thick and thin, when I was my most crazy, and never doubted: thank you so much. I’m so fucking happy and thankful to be alive. It’s hard to make people believers and I knew as long as I stay prolific and vigilant with mine, in time people will get it. And that time is now and that’s awesome.

You did appear on Yeezus on the song “Guilt Trip.” A lot of fans were excited to see you featured—although it was just the outro. What's the story behind that collaboration?

The vocal that I did on that song was a couple years old. I forgot which session it was, but it was just a reference. I discovered that I was on the song via Twitter. I saw kids hitting me up, like, “Are you on ‘Guilt Trip!?’ or saying “Great job!” and I’m like, “What the fuck is everyone talking about?” So I go on Twitter and then I hear the song and I’m like, “OK. I know the beat. I know the song.” Then I’m like, “Oh man, OK.” Part of me was flattered, like, it’s kind of cool that he thought of me.

Then I started thinking about it more. It was like, Why not call me and have me come in there and give it? Why underuse me? Why put four bars of vocals to coax my fans into thinking this is a legitimate Kid Cudi feature on this song and it isn’t? Same deal with the G.O.O.D. Music album, the compilation. Had I not given Kanye “Creepers” my only presence would’ve been on that one song, that I can’t even remember the title for. [“The Morning” —Ed.] I would’ve barely been on that album.

It was basically just a background vocal...

It’s weird. I don’t know how to feel but I would’ve much rather been off that song. I don’t care to be on people’s songs like that. Unless it came from a legitimate session where we’re all vibing and have an idea.

Something that made the rounds around the Internet very quickly was a photo of you in the studio with Bieber. Did you get any work done with him or no?

Oh no no no. That’s a big misunderstanding. OK, here’s the deal. [Laughs.] I was in the studio one late night, working on the mix and unfortunately I was trying to get the normal studio I go to but they were booked up. The only studio available was this one studio that’s like a fucking playground for every Top 40 artist in the world. And I hate going there because when you go there you just run into everybody and people just wanna walk in your session. So I’ve been dodging this place for years but this one night I had no choice.

I had to go there because I had to work on this mix and add some vocals. Because I think at this point I was coming with more songs and I just had the idea for “Internal Bleeding.” So I’m in the studio, it’s late—it’s like maybe one in the morning. I’m sitting there and my head’s down and I’m kinda like vibing to the music and I feel somebody touch my shoulder. I look up and it’s Justin. In there, in the studio, just there. I said what’s up. It was actually the first time that we’ve had a real encounter. I mean I’ve seen him here and there, I’ve seen him around Jaden [Smith] but he’s never been in my space.


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