Kid Cudi: Hip Hop Is ‘Holding Us Back As A Culture’

Is Hip Hop holding us back as a culture?

Rapper Kid Cudi thinks so!  This past weekend, he stopped by The Arsenio Hall show to promote his new movie ‘Need For Speed,’ and things got real serious after he was asked to look into the camera and tell his rap peers what Hip Hop needs to do.  He revealed:

I think the braggadocio ‘Money, Cash, Hoes’ thing needs to be deaded. I feel like, that’s holding us back as a culture, as black people. It doesn’t advance us in any way, shape, or form. We’ve been doing that same thing for years now. It’s been like, four decades of the same ol’ bullsh-t.  Sorry for my language.

And I feel like, if you’re gonna be an artist, there’s a time where you just have to embrace the responsibility and understand the power of music is something so special and to be able to do it in this magnitude where you reach millions of people, it’s like, why not use that for good? Why not tell kids something they can connect with and use in their lives?

Kid Cudi also revealed that he has been dealing with loneliness and suicidal thoughts for a long time and his wish is that artists could make more music with positive messages that would give young kids today guidance:

Really, my mission statement since day one, all I wanted to do was help kids not feel alone and stop kids from committing suicide.

I dealt with suicide for the past five years. There wasn’t a week or day that didn’t go by where I was just like, ‘You know? I wanna check out.’ And I know what that feels like. And I know it comes from loneliness. I know it comes from not having self-worth, not loving yourself. These are things that kids don’t have music that can coach them and give them that guidance. I didn’t have that. I had to listen to Jay Z and take certain things from it and the other sh-t I just didn’t know what he was talking about.

And now I’m 30 and I’m like, ‘Oh! That’s what Hov was talking about! I get it now!’ But what about the kids…you never had an artist where you connected with them all across the board, you know? And I think that’s my job. I’m just really just trying to guide people and help people because loneliness is a terrible, terrible thing, man and if you don’t know how to conquer it, it can eat you alive.

When asked about his current mental state, Cudi revealed that he is now fine. “I’m good. I’m alright,” he said flashing a bright smile.

You definitely don’t hear a rapper saying this every day.  Kids nowadays are so impressionable and they want what the money, cars, clothes, and bad chicks that they see in videos and hear about in rap songs. That to them equates to success. Unfortunately, a lot of the positive stuff with progressive messages doesn’t get that much radio airplay (with the exception of Macklemore –that’s a whole other discussion — and a few J. Cole, Kendrick Lamar, Nas and Drake tracks). Who’s to blame?

What do you think of Kid Cudi’s thoughts on Hip Hop?