Dot Da Genius Tells All: The Stories Behind his Classic Records

Kid Cudi's WZRD bandmate talks about producing Cudder's early classics as well as working with Chip Tha Ripper and Kanye West.

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Complex Original

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This feature is a part of Complex's WZRD Week.

Dot Da Genius isn't the most popular producer in the game, nor has he worked with all the big-name artists. Instead, the Brooklyn beatsmith choose to stick by his brother Kid Cudi. Back when they were no-names Dot helped craft the songs that got the kid from Cleveland noticed and eventually made him a star. One of those songs was the classic "Day 'N' Nite," which earned them both a Grammy nomination. 

Since then, Dot's gone on to work with Cudi's frequent collaborators Chip Tha Ripper and Kanye West, but otherwise he's mostly kept it in-house. We've already spoken with Dot and Cudi about The Making of WZRD, so we figured it was only right to hook up with Dot on the solo tip to talk about the making of all of his classic songs. He told us about how he likes to make songs organically, how prophetic many of Cudi's early songs were, and what song caused him to received (humorous) death threats.

As told to Insanul Ahmed (@Incilin)

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Kid Cudi "Day 'N' Nite" (2008)

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Producer: Dot da Genius, Kid Cudi
Album: Man On The Moon: The End of Day
Label: G.O.O.D. Music, Fool's Gold Records, Universal Motown, Data Records

Dot Da Genius: “I produced a lot of Cudi's earlier stuff. A lot of classics, if you will. When people really started getting hip to him, it was through a lot of the work we were doing. Me and Cudi were already working together for a little bit, we had already made some records.


 

There were no edits, no changes made, and it came out two years after. We made it in 2007 and it reached its popularity in 2009.


 

“He had this idea in his head. He had the lyrics written before I even made the beat. He had this melody and he came to me with it like, 'Yo, we gotta make this record.' With me and Cudi a lot of our stuff is just really organic. He'll come to me with an idea or I'll be playing with an idea and he'll go, 'I like that,' and we'll just build like that.

“We were at Headbangaz studios, which is pretty much where I used to live. My dad built that studio, so we were working out of there. I remember it being a two-day process from first getting the instrumental right, to him then recording it, and then us arranging. Being that it was a two-day process, it was pretty fast how everything came together.

“After those two days that was how everyone hears 'Day 'N' Nite' now. There were no edits, no changes made, and it came out two years after. We made it in 2007 and it reached its popularity in 2009.”

Kid Cudi "Cleveland Is The Reason" (2008)

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Producer: Dot da Genius
Album: A Kid Named Cudi
Label: N/A

Dot Da Genius: “That was in my crib studio again. I had just gotten this synth and this keyboard. It's called the X-Station. I found the main synth that you hear on 'Cleveland is the Reason' and I was coming up with the melody.

“I remember specifically I had the melody and I just kept playing it over and over on the keyboard. Cudiwas walking through the house on his cell phone. He was about to go out and smoke a cigarette and then he poked his head in and was like, 'Yo Dot, that shit is dope! Lay that down immediately.'


 

Cudi said, 'They say I'm Complex like the magazine/I want my closet Complex like the magazine.” No ties to Complex, but it was a magazine he really liked back then and it turned into a relationship with the magazine. A lot of things he said and he rapped about, they came true.


 

“So I laid it down and then built around it. He put the icing on the cake with those cool-ass vocals. You know, he really brought his Cleveland swag. Back then, he was fresh from Cleveland. His Cleveland twang was very—it's still there—but it was still thick. He still had his straight from Cleveland swag you know. That was one of my personal favorite records that we've done.

“There's a viral video of a baby going crazy to that song, which personally is super fulfilling to me because ultimately that's why I create music. To evoke emotion from a baby that's two or three years old is just like… it means something. It means there's something about the music that's easy to grasp and get.

“A crazy thing about a lot of our earlier stuff was that if you listen to it today you'll see that a lot of his raps were prophetic. He rapped about what it was gonna be like and it became like that. He mentioned a lot of things in his raps.

“He said, 'They say I'm Complex like the magazine/I want my closet Complex like the magazine.” No ties to Complex, but it was a magazine he really liked back then and it turned into a relationship with the magazine. A lot of things he said and he rapped about, they came true. We look back on it sometimes and we're just like, 'That's crazy bro, you really rapped it into existence.'”

Kid Cudi "Dat New New" (2008)

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Producer: Dot da Genius
Album: Day 'n' Nite
Label: Fool's Gold

Dot Da Genius: “We was in Headbangaz studios and I was playing the guitar riff that you hear on the song and I started building on that. The thing about Cudi is, as soon as he hears something that he likes, it's almost like automatic. He came up with that hook—that was the first thing he said out his mouth when he heard the beat, the hook that it is now.

“That's one of my favorite Cudi hooks; it just has so much swag and the fans just really love that record. It's just got that vibe. It's like Bob Marley's music, you just put it on and it feels good. That's one of those records. It's mid-tempo but it still rocks and people still love it. That was another one of the classics.


 

That's one of my favorite Cudi hooks; it just has so much swag and the fans just really love that record. It's just got that vibe. It's like Bob Marley's music, you just put it on and it feels good. 


 

“When Cudi creates, his main thing is that everything comes together organically. Whenever a song feels forced, it's like immediately scrapped. We try not to waste any time. So a lot of songs or even beats come from us hanging out, chopping it up, and shooting the shit.

“Then maybe I'll dip off and go to the studio and start on a drum pattern. Or Cudi will say something and it'll just sound like a song or a topic he wants to touch on. Everything is organic.

“We don't ever get in the studio and be like, 'Okay, we gotta make a Top 40 record right now and it has to be about this, it needs to do this, and we need to do this for radio.' We never go in the studio like that and I feel like that's part of the formula for our success. We don't really stress about making something that's necessarily for radio.

“A lot of artist go in the studio like, 'Man I need a number one hit, I need a number one song.' You lose the organic nature once you go in the studio with that mindset. It's just about making the best song you can possibly make. Whether it's a uptempo, a ballad, or midtempo.”

Kid Cudi "Highs and Lows" (2010)

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Producer: Dot da Genius
Album: N/A
Label: N/A

Dot Da Genius: “There's another one that was on his demo, that was initially titled 'I Be' but it's called 'Highs and Lows.' With that record, Cudi put me on to some Bob Dylan and played me 'Lay Lady Lay.' On that record, we sampled Bob Dylan. Cudi was like, 'We gotta loop this up, we gotta loop this up.' He just alley-ooped that to me.

“I looped it up, put the drums on it, and it was one of those vibe records. It's an emotional record because at that time period we was dealing with some stuff. We had been making music for a while but we still didn't get any notoriety or any major looks. Cudi was dealing with some stuff at that time period too. He really put his emotion and his heart in that song and spit some real shit.”

Kid Cudi "Marijuana" (2010)

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Producer: Dot da Genius, Kid Cudi, Mike Dean
Album: Man On The Moon II: The Legend of Mr. Rager
Label: Dream On, G.O.O.D. Music, Universal Motown

Dot Da Genius: “For that song, we went to different studios. The first time we started working on that record we were in L.A. at Record Plant. It started when Cudi was playing with the keyboard and he had this synth idea that I ended up building drums around.

“That record transformed because we had the synth idea and he laid down this reference that had the 'Ooooh Marijuana' in it. We had that idea then and he had some reference raps for it but we ended up taking it to Hawaii when we was with Kanye working on My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. We were in the studio upstairs and we were listening to the record; they were just deliberating, figuring out what songs they were gonna keep and what not.


 

We had that idea then and he had some reference raps for it but we ended up taking it to Hawaii when we was with Kanye working on My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy.


 

“So we listened to it and then the synth idea; Cudi started not to like it and wanted something else. So we kind of figured out the chords because it was a really weird synth. So I put these keys down and it turned more into like a ballad almost. It feels like a ballad, but it still rocks.

“We worked with Mike Dean on the record too. He's the one doing the guitar solo and the bass on the song. We finished that up in Hawaii and I mixed it with Ryan West in New York. So it was L.A., Hawaii, New York on that record.

“That record really came together. It's one of those records you watch transform. It sounds like this, then it has a whole different vibe, and it's just this whole different thing.”

Kid Cudi "Trapped In My Mind" (2010)

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Producer: Dot da Genius, Kid Cudi
Album: Man On The Moon II: The Legend of Mr. Rager
Label: Dream On, G.O.O.D. Music, Universal Motown

Dot Da Genius: “I really like that record. That's one of my daughter's favorite records from that album too. And this is not even me with propaganda, like, 'Look, Daddy made this song, you gotta like it.' But the melody and the vibe of it she immediately gravitated to.

“Even my parents love it. They love all the music I do, but that was one of the specific songs that my mom—who doesn't really have a specific opinion on most music—had to hit me up, like, 'I really like this song.' So that was really gratifying.


 

Even my parents love it. They love all the music I do, but that was one of the specific songs that my mom—who doesn't really have a specific opinion on most music—had to hit me up, like, 'I really like this song.'


 

“That song started when we were in Cudi's house in New York. The album was already at the point that they were thinking about ending the album right there. We had [enough cuts that] we were just gonna pick and choose. So we ended up creating that day and the next in a two-day span we came up with 'Trapped in my Mind.'

“I remember Cudi saying, 'This is gonna be the last song on the album, it has to be,' and making the calls to make it happen. It's just one of those songs with a good vibe. It has a good vibe, it puts people in a good mood. It's just like the content that he's talking about is so relatable.

“There's plenty of people that feel like they're trapped in their mind. You can completely relate to that song. I actually have footage of it [being made] that I might be putting out soon because we're on our whole marketing shit right now [for the WZRD album]. That might be coming out soon so look out for that.”

Kid Cudi "Maybe" (2010)

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Producer: Dot da Genius
Album: Man On The Moon II: The Legend of Mr. Rager
Label: Dream On, G.O.O.D. Music, Universal Motown

Dot Da Genius: “That record was during the early Man on the Moon II stages. I remember my homie Rami Beatz came to the studio and he just had all these VST's [Ed. note—VST stands for Virtual Studio Technology]. I had never seen at the time. He just blessed me with those VST's and literally that was like the second beat I made after he gave me those.

“I remember thinking this sounds like some shit Cudi would mess with. I had a New York studio session with Cudi and he was like, 'Yo play me some beats.' I put it on and he immediately started humming and a minute later he had the hook. He had the whole style of how he wanted to approach the record.


 

Cudi is not really rapping on that record, if you wanna get technical. People are talking about the WZRD album and him not rapping. He's not rapping on that and he's not rapping on 'Pursuit of Happiness.' On 'Day 'N' Nite,' he's rapping but not really. That's his style. All his lyrics come with some type of melody.


 

“He's not really rapping on that record, if you wanna get technical. People are talking about the WZRD album and him not rapping. He's not rapping on that and he's not rapping on 'Pursuit of Happiness.' On 'Day 'N' Nite,' he's rapping but not really. That's his style. All his lyrics come with some type of melody.

“That record almost didn't make the album. They were trying to look for things to make people more pumped about the album so they were like, 'Let's give them a bonus track.' Then that song popped up. I actually took it back to my crib, finished it up, and had Rami come through and put some accoutrement on it.

“I've seen people bring it up and hit me up and talk about it. People who are discovering Cudi now, it might take them a while to find that song. I'm sure it's on YouTube but to discover it—because it was a bonus jam—it's gonna be a little more work.

“It's was one of those things that people can't go on iTunes and buy it now, but the fans that pre-ordered the album are gonna keep that song going. People are gonna keep discovering it. It flows with the album too. If you listen to the album all the way through and you go to 'Maybe,' it feels like the continuation of the story.”

Kanye West and Jay-Z f/ Beyonce "Lift Off" (2011)

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Producer: Kanye West, Jeff Bhasker, Mike Dean, Q-Tip, Pharrell, Don Jazzy
Album: Watch The Throne
Label: Roc-A-Fella, Roc Nation, Def Jam

Dot Da Genius: “Ye actually asked me to come to one of the Mercer Sessions. He wanted me to touch 'Lift Off.' I was at the house and I got a call from Cudi. Cudi was with Kanye and Cudi was like, 'Yo, come to Mercer right now. Like, right now. Kanye wants you to work on some shit.'


 

I was at the house and I got a call from Cudi. Cudi was with Kanye and Cudi was like, 'Yo, come to Mercer right now. Like, right now. Kanye wants you to work on some sh*t.'


 

“So I get over there, and he's playing me 'Lift Off.' There was a lot of different versions to 'Lift Off.' Even the version that I worked on didn't end up making the album.

“Kanye had different versions of 'Lift Off' and he was trying to describe to me how he wanted it to sound, what it needed to have rhythmically. So I was in one of the rooms at the Mercer just working on the record. Me and Jeff Bhasker—who produced it—were trying to get that vibe right.

“I left it in their hands. I don't know all the collaborators on that record, but someone was able to give it the feel that they wanted. That's pretty much how that played out. But a lot of things are coming in the future."

Chip Tha Ripper f/ Kid Cudi and Far East Movement "Ride 4 You" (2012)

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Producer: Dot da Genius
Album: Tell Ya Friends
Label: N/A

Dot Da Genius: “Chip just dropped his Tell Your Friends mixtape. I did a record called 'Ride 4 You' on that, it's featuring Far East Movement and Cudi. That came about when I played the beat for Cudi, and he was vibing with it. We tried out some things and then we actually got in the studio with Far East Movement and we was all playing them records.

“Cudi was like, 'Man, they don't have nothing like this. They're more known for their club music. Let's mellow them out. Let's give them something that most people wouldn't be able to give them.'


 

Cudi was like, 'Man, they don't have nothing like this. They're more known for their club music. Let's mellow them out. Let's give them something that most people wouldn't be able to give them.'


 

“Originally we did it for Far East Movement. Cudi did the hook and had a bridge. Every one of them rapped on it. It was a dope record. Then Cudi was like, 'This record needs Chip.' So we sent it to Chip and Chip absolutely killed it. Far East ended up not using the record for their album and then Chip was like, 'I need this, this is a dope record.'

“That's one of the songs that's out, but me and Chip have a bunch of records that we're trying to feed to the people the right way. It could have easily went on his last tape, but we were thinking album. We were thinking about a couple of songs we're doing that we can build an album around. So we've been just kind of tucking them and holding the songs close.

“Probably sooner than later, we're about to just start unleashing them and just start giving them away because there's definitely some dope records that I feel like the world would just immediately mess with.

“Chip is one of those rappers that he got a tone. Not too many rappers have their tone together. Chip has a tone and it's a great tone. You can use his tone for a lot specific records, if you use it right. So yeah, me and Chip have a bunch of stuff in the works. More to come with me and Chip.


 

Me and Chip have a bunch of stuff in the works. More to come with me and Chip.


 

“I have records that me and Chip have done with Cudi. Those two are a duo as well. Chip is just great to have around. He's just super creative with his word play. It seems like there's no limit to what he can come up with. He can make up raps out of every day things.

“Like on his latest mixtape, there's a skit on their where I'm talking and I'm just talking about someone I had seen online. Someone pulled up a profile and I was like, 'You can tell this person is trying to be a model, that's her whole M.O. or whatever.'

“Literally, we was chilling in the hotel room and he just bought this voice recorder. But it was one of those real expensive ones. So literally while we was having the conversation he just had it rolling and then he busted out into a hook and then made a song about it. Chip was recording it and he just literally came up with a hook.

“If you listen to it, he just came up with that there on the spot. Never heard that hook ever, he never came up with it until that point, and it's called 'Shorty Wanna Be a Model.' If you listen to it off the mixtape, you see how organic his context and how he comes up with songs are.”

Kid Cudi "Dose of Dopeness" (2012)

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Producer: Dot da Genius
Album: N/A
Label: N/A

Dot Da Genius: “There's a bunch of records [we did a long time ago]. 'Dose of Dopeness' is from that era. I put that out and it was trending all day on Twitter. There's a bunch of records people still haven't heard that are amazing.

“That was almost like an urban myth. I remember I just got a drum machine—the MV8000—around that time and I made that record on there. I sampled Quincy Jones and I put some finishing touches before I put it out.


 

Every since he performed that song, I've been getting hit up on an every-day basis about it. Random people were asking me to release that song for the past four years, I'm not even exaggerating. It would go down from someone figuring out my email, to writing me an email, to all these death threats and Twitter messages.


 

“Every since he performed that song, I've been getting hit up on an every-day basis about it. Random people were asking me to release that song for the past four years, I'm not even exaggerating. It would go down from someone figuring out my email, to writing me an email, to all these death threats and Twitter messages.

“Not serious death threats, but people jokingly like 'If you don't release 'Dose of Dopeness' I'm gonna do this or that.' It was humorous for a long time but then it became un-humorous when it kept happening everyday. Everyday I would go on Twitter and somebody would be tweeting something like, 'Why haven't you released 'Dose of Dopeness?''

“And again, this is an old record from around 2008. But pretty much what's out right now is what it was for a long time. The fans are very happy right now. I can go to sleep and wake up in the morning and not have to worry about somebody tweeting me about the song because it's out there now and I'm thrilled.”

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