By Marcus J. Moore
The hip-hop star was clean, sober and intoxicating.
COLUMBIA, MD — The future is very much alive, and it wears undersized t-shirts and sagging skinny jeans. It is the restless generation — the young and the hip, raising a middle finger to authority and setting a pace for the new wave of cool.
They like trap music.
They embrace dubstep and ‘80s pop.
They love Kid Cudi.
And who could blame them. In many ways, the embattled 27-year-old is a direct reflection of the adolescent masses he aims to please. He’s a misunderstood soul that craves freedom. He’s a neo-hippie who, until recently, lived life as a stoned space cadet with a self-destructive drug habit and low self-esteem.
But this was a different Kid Cudi on stage at the Merriweather Post Pavilion in Columbia, Md. He gave up performing just “to detox a bit,” he told the crowd. It’s been months since he’s had a smoke or shot of alcohol. And there he appeared at about 9:15 p.m. Saturday night, lucid and focused on the task at hand.
“You’ve been waiting for me?” Cudi asked the crowd amid thunderous applause. “That’s good, because I’ve been waiting for you, too.”
For almost two hours, the Cleveland native tantalized the crowd with moderate and monstrous hits from his three projects: A Kid Named Cudi, and both Man on the Moon albums. He stalked the stage with bright-eyed abandon, slinking from one side to the other in, well, an undersized t-shirt and skinny jeans.
“Welcome, welcome you, cause I am your big brother,” Cudi groaned over “Revofev,” a sparse loop of piano keys and guitar chords.
By the time the riot-inducing “Mojo So Dope” blared through the speakers — just four songs later — the already raucous crowd had transformed into a live painting of unrest, a sea of white hands waving in unison as wafts of weed smoke pierced the calm night air. Ironically, the next song in the set was the Bone Thugs-induced “Marijuana,” yet another crowd favorite from Man on the Moon II.
So with all the energy there, who cared if Cudi seemed pitchy at times? Certainly not the kids. What he lacked in range, his band more than made up for in raging guitar riffs, cascading drum cymbals and ear-shattering space grooves. When “Up Up and Away” came around — roughly 30 minutes into the show — the fans jumped vigorously while tweeting and updating their Facebook statuses.
“Cudi! Cudi!” they chanted between songs.
But their euphoria soon turned to impatience. There was the so-called mixtape sing-along of “Maui Wowie” and other songs, which dampened the mood slightly, even if the glitzy electro-pop kept the audience intrigued. Then Cudi shared the stage with fellow Cleveland native Chip Tha Ripper and New Yorker CAGE, whose self-depreciating, emo trip-hop didn’t go over well with the savvy teenagers, many of whom took their seats for the first time in an hour.
Instead, Cudi shone best when left to roam alone, when his unassuming affability were allowed to illuminate the secluded pavilion without distractions. Once CAGE left, Cudi reemerged with two well-executed covers — Jimi Hendrix’s “Hey Joe” and Kanye West’s “All of the Lights” — and a quick three-song mash-up, which included a techno remix of “Day and Nite.”
Then there was time for just one more song: “Pursuit of Happiness,” performed under neon green lights. Still, what would be a concert without some fan appreciation?
“Kid Cudi fans are the realest motherfuckers on the planet. Period,” Cudi said to the adoring crowd.
Kids say the darndest things.
