Kid Cudi’s inventive approach to melodic hip-hop and his soul-baring, heart-on-his-sleeve lyrics have made him one of the most culturally significant musicians of the last 15 years. It’s also made Scott Mescudi, the human being, the subject of endless curiosity, which was the inspiration behind A Man Named Scott, a new documentary out November 5 on Amazon Prime Video.
Though it features noteworthy interviews with Cudi’s inner circle–producers Dot Da Genius, Plain Pat, Emile Haynie, and long-time manager Dennis Cummings–the most moving insights in the film come from the generation raised on Cudi’s art. Willow and Jaden Smith, Lil Yachty, and Timothée Chalamet all talk about what the Cleveland musician means to them, and they exemplify the way many in their teens and 20s felt spoken to by records like “Sky Might Fall” and “Soundtrack 2 My Life.” Schoolboy Q and A$AP Rocky also share how Cudi’s work affected and inspired them.
The film largely relies on talking head footage, including a pair of interviews with Cudi himself, who speaks about the invasiveness that came with celebrity and the pressure he felt knowing how many young fans connected with his music so deeply. Cudi has always been a compelling and frank interview subject, and that remains true here.“I never thought being so honest would, in turn, have people wanting to ask me so many personal questions. People would be like, ‘You lost your dad at 11 years old. What was that like?’” he says. “These are questions that I’ve never been asked before, this is stuff that I’ve never even thought about. When my father died I camouflaged all my feelings, I tucked that shit away.”
But the documentary has its shortcomings. Moments of Cudi’s life that could really be explored for emotional catharsis, such as his 2016 rehab stay, are discussed broadly, not in a granular, detailed manner. What the film focuses most on, his early career and the making of Man on the Moon: The End of Day, has been covered in a myriad of articles and interviews.
Like many films in which the star is involved in the production, A Man Named Scott is largely flattering, though Cudi does talk about depression, anxiety, and substance abuse with his usual candor. Smartly, Robert Alexander shows the movie’s seams a bit, including some of Cudi’s notes on the film, and moments where he refuses to talk about certain music, like 2015’s Speedin’ Bullet 2 Heaven.
For any Cudi completist, Alexander’s film is certainly worth watching, and there’s no denying his impact on shaping the sound and tenor of modern pop music deserves a close look. Here are some of the most significant moments that we caught in A Man Named Scott.
Cudi calls “Soundtrack 2 My Life” his “mission statement.”
There’s no song that sums up the early Kid Cudi ethos like 2009’s “Soundtrack 2 My Life,” and in the documentary, Cudi confirms it was more or less reverse engineered to be that way.
He calls the song both his “introduction to the world” and his “mission statement.” He admits that certain lyrics on the song, like the line about considering trying cocaine, made him worry about how loved ones would react, but that “ultimately it was about being honest and being a true artist.”
Haynie, who produced the song, says working with Cudi on records like this one helped him change his approach to making music entirely. Where previously he would make a beat and show it to an artist, with Cudi he began working more from scratch, focusing on songwriting in its entirety.
Towards the end of the doc, he specifically references the second verse couplet: “I try and think about myself as a sacrifice / Just to show the kids they ain’t the only ones who up at night.” “That’s truly what it was. I sacrificed the privacy of my life and put my story out there to help others,” he says.
The reception to “Pursuit of Happiness” frustrated Cudi initially.
After “Day ‘n’ Nite,” the Kid Cudi song most casual fans probably think of is “Pursuit of Happiness.” The single, which features Ratatat and MGMT, was certified five-times platinum, but Cudi says its success, coupled with the uber popular Steve Aoki EDM remix, caused people to miss its real message.
“It’s a really dark song. Probably one of the darkest on the album, that’s why it’s labeled ‘Nightmare.’ I think that got lost on some people when we did the remix and stuff like that and it became something else,” Cudi says. “So it bothered me at first, I was like, ‘Oh, they missed the point. This is not supposed to be celebrated. I’m talking about drinking and driving, I’m very reckless on the song.’”
At this stage of his career, Cudi says he’s made peace with how fans perceive the record.
“But now I don’t really trip about that. I love the reaction with ‘Pursuit’ every time I do it at the shows. I’ve got to perform that song. I’ll be performing that song forever,” he says.
Cudi and Shia LaBeouf’s intense friendship is explored at length.
A Man Named Scott was made over the last two years, which explains why Shia LaBeouf appears at length. (LaBeouf has stayed out of the public eye recently following FKA Twigs’ comments and allegations about her abusive relationship with him, and suffering physical, verbal, and emotional abuse at his hands.)
In the documentary, Cudi and LaBeouf discuss the times they’ve attempted to work together, and how their intense emotions oftimes made things rocky between them. (LaBeouf says Cudi once kicked him out of his house for saying he didn’t like WZRD.)
One previously unreported anecdote in the film focuses on a cartoon idea around Cudi’s early years that LaBeouf wrote and pitched to Adult Swim. During the session, LaBeouf said Cudi reacted angrily to some of the information used in the script, including stuff he said the pair had previously discussed but he hadn’t “double checked” about including.
“I write this treatment and I put everything into it. There’s like five people in the room from Adult Swim and they’re kind of vibing with the treatment, and I’d never really pitched shit in my life, ever. So I’m thinking, ‘Gosh, this is going well,’” LaBeouf recalls. “In the middle of the meeting, he just takes the pages out of my hand. He goes, ‘This is bullshit!’ and he threw the fucking pages out in the meeting and then stormed out.”
Cudi remembers things happening differently. “Nah I didn’t do that. I grabbed the script out his hand because it was a script that I didn’t read that he wrote on his own,” he says. “it was really smooth how I did it, because he took it out and then right when he pulled it out I was like, ‘No, no, no, no.’ And he was pissed.”
In a 2020 Esquire interview, Cudi called Shia his “favorite actor” and “best friend,” and LaBeouf directed him in the 2011 short film Maniac.
Schoolboy Q and Lil Yachty are huge Cudiheads.
There is no shortage of Cudi acolytes–everyone from Travis Scott to Logic has sung his praises–but two of the more animated interviews in the doc come from Schoolboy Q and Lil Yachty.
Both have working relationships with Cudi–Yachty helped get him on “Moon” off West’s DONDA, while Q and Cudi worked together on 2019’s “Dangerous.” Though Q hails from very different circumstances than Cudi, his early music from projects like 2012’s Habits & Contradictions is notable for blending emotional candor with stories of Los Angeles gang culture. He says in the documentary that Cudi’s music really resonated deeply with him.
“Songs like ‘Pursuit of Happiness’ and shit, that’s basically saying ‘Ayy n***a, you’re depressed. You can’t hide it. You’re trying to act like you don’t wanna hear this song, you’re constantly listening to it but trying to act like you’re not listening to it,’” Q explains.
Yachty says that Cudi inspired him to take risks both personally and artistically, and even admits that he wants to be able to put out ambitious projects without feeling the need to spell out his intentions, the way Cudi has in the past.
“When I do shit, I be so fearful of people not understanding something that I explain everything. He’s kind of the opposite. He just drops it, which is so cool. I wish I could be like that.”
Cudi says he’s done making “dark records.”
The film’s final moments are soundtracked by the extremely on-the-nose, but no doubt emotionally affecting “Reborn” off 2018’s Kids See Ghosts. The collaborative album with Kanye was Cudi’s first release after his time in rehab, and has a more hopeful tone than much of his earlier music. Still, Cudi says he was struggling to figure out where he wanted to go artistically, and that making that album was a huge boon for him.
“Kanye doesn’t know, but he saved me. He saved me from being depressed
all over again about where I was at with the music,” Cudi says. “He helped me see that, no no, I’m not done yet.”Kids See Ghosts went on to be a critical and commercial success, and seemed to really reignite a passion within Cudi.
Because of when it was made, the documentary doesn’t delve into Man On the Moon III: The Chosen, Cudi’s 2020 studio record. That one has plenty of songs that fit in Cudi’s somber, introspective oeuvre like “Another Day” and “Mr. Solo Dolo III,” but also sees him lighten up a bit on the drill record “Show Out” and the self-affirming “Lovin’ Me.” He explains at the film’s conclusion that he’s trying to steer clear of making music that’s as bleak as some of his earliest work. “I just have no desire to make any more dark records. I don’t want to put more of that out into the world,” he says. “I hope people got it when I put it out, when I did it, but that chapter is done.”