One more to add to the list of Hip-Hop tracks influenced by Paul Simon.

In spending the day trying to catch up on all the latest music released via the wonderful world of blogs, one realizes the Herculean task that exists in simply staying up on just one week’s worth of music. I wonder what type of psychosis can be induced as a result of constant exposure to Zshare/Rapidshare/Meguapload wait times. If I were still forced to identify which letters contained a cat, via Rapidshare’s captcha, I might end up going Rampage on the neighborhood.

Generally, I don’t get caught up in blog hype that surrounds a certain artist, which is why I was surprised by what I heard on the free internet released mixtape by Cleveland native, Kid Cudi. I’ll spare readers with the intellectual masturbatory spiel about the artistry in said artist’s music and lyrcs, but feel free to unload [1] in the comments section. Though, I do suggest you download and listen to A Kid Named Cudi in it’s entirety.

One track I do want to point out is “50 Ways to Make a Record”, a track that shows another example of a rapper infatuated with Paul Simon’s “50 Ways to Lose a Lover”. This time around, instead of simply rapping over the sample based instrumental, Kid Cudi sings a ballad to the original tune with lyrics reciting the process of recording. At a point 2/3’s within the track, Mr. Simon’s voice is even used to complete a verse. The original song is a work of art, and it’s interesting to hear how other artists have re-interpreted the sample. Of course the same could be said of samples such as “Funky President”, but I’ve grown a fascination to this track due to it not coming from the same vein of funk and soul the greater majority of re-used samples.

Kid Cudi - 50 Ways to Make a Record

In other Hip-Hop/movie news, Augor and Revok, known to take various billboards in the LA area and add their own graphic touch, have recently unleashed a fresh Dark Knight interpretation [click here for pictures]

Unrelated fight comments: Forgive me for the poorly executed joke earlier. Rampage, get yourself better. Brandon, cool shorts but step your game up. Anderson, props. Fedor, I am convinced that you are either a robot or that your sparring partners are lions and bears; has PETA complained yet?

[1] I know, I know

-Ninoy Brown

This entry was posted on Sunday, July 20th, 2008 at 6:30 pm and is filed under Hip-Hop, Pop Culture, Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.