I’m at Halloween party, and my friend Derek pulls me aside in drunken excitement. He tells me I have to hear this song! We proceed to watch this video of a song amongst drunken party commotion on his phone. The sound’s not loud enough, but we’re too hammered to stop watching. He tells me he’ll bring me this guys mix-tape tomorrow to work. He keeps going on and on about this song and how much “I would love this!”
A few days later he hits me with the mix-tape for a dude named Kid Cudi. It’s called “A Kid Named Cudi,” and he plays me the song “Day N Night”. I flip out! (as most people who know me know I do when I hear music I feel) I can’t stop playing this song. It was me. This guy was me.
A few months later Derek comes over to my desk and tells me that Kid Cudi is going to be at HOB’s with Asher Roth for the Hangover tour. We buy tickets. I think to myself “Asher Roth’s album kinda sucks, but I love this dude Cudi. At least he’ll be dope!”
We end up going to the show with a bunch of people from work. I had just saw a STELLAR show that was put on by “The Roots” the night before at Rehab in the Hard Rock. I wasn’t sure if anything could top that.
We are HAMMERED and I mean HAMMERED at this show and Cudi makes his way out. Packed house and everyone is going crazy! These kids are singing all of his mix-tape songs to him like it was an album that came out years ago. I was amazed at the love he was getting. We’re all rocking with him, because we all had been listening to his mix-tape like an album for the past few months.
Then a song I don’t recognize comes on. It’s just him on stage. With a screen behind him playing his shadow on the moon. The bass is so loud it’s burning my ears. I’m having this slow motion, drunk, out of body experience. It’s a strange and unifying feeling when you feel hundreds of people are on the same page. “I’M… MR. SOLO DOLO {BOOM} {BOOM}!!!”
I didn’t know what I was listening to, but I knew what it was doing to me. The combination of strings and bass had me making that UGLY FACE! You know that UGLY FACE & HEAD BOB! It’s that face you make when you hear a new HOV album. It’s that face you make when Nas’ “Second Childhood” comes on. You almost can’t deal with the sounds that are coming at you.
Derek turns to me when the show is over and says: “I hope that dude makes it man!” I knew exactly what he meant by that. People usually try to destroy change. This was a big change!
As the girls we’re with are using their hot girl powers to get drinks from a rich douche bag, and split them between the group; I take a sip of my free drink and realize that I have just witnessed something new. Something different. In that moment it made me remember my motivation for what I do. My motivation for life.
