Kid Cudi Talks Cinema, Orchestras and Cash

In recent years, hip-hop has become increasingly cinematic and Kid Cudi's 'Man On The Moon: The End Of Day' takes this trend to a point of no return. The record is split into five acts that contain distinct narrative arcs and are tied together with swelling string interludes and spoken word from Common. In another finding from our recent interview with Kid Cudi, the artist spoke on his usage of orchestras and how he makes music sound like a movie.

"The cinematic thing I wanted to bring to the table was the orchestra, but I didn't want to do it in the sense that most hip-hop artists fail at," explains Cudi in an interview with The BoomBox. "You know? Like that, "Yeah, man! There's strings on this beat!" I wanted to utilize the orchestra properly, like how it's used cinematically in a movie. Literally, I wanted you to feel like when you're in a movie theater with your eyes closed."

Larry Gold, a composer who has worked with The Roots among many others, handled the scoring throughout the record. Apparently, Cudi wrote out the entire story for Gold and placed markers where he wanted to include interludes. Gold took this direction and composed the sophisticated string arrangements that really take the album to the next level.

"Even when we were doing a deal, like walking around to labels and meeting, I made sure every person I talked to knew that I didn't care about money and things like that," says Cudi. "It was more like make sure you have enough for my f---ing orchestra. I will not work if I cannot have that orchestra. The album would still be good, but it wouldn't paint that picture. It would be alright, but not great. People Magazine would give it 3.5 stars rather than 4. You know what I'm saying?"

Well, if both People Magazine and The BoomBox can cosign, this is probably something worth checking out. Be sure to check back in tomorrow for the release of 'Man On The Moon: The End Of Day' and our full exclusive Q&A with Cudi.