The Best Kid Cudi and Kanye Collaborations

In cooking, there is the idea of the amuse-bouche. It is an hors d'oeuvre eaten in a single bite and served at a chef’s discretion. The purpose is twofold: give the patron a snapshot into the journey they are about to take over the course of a meal, and encapsulate a chef’s beliefs. Kanye and Cudi’s relationship works in a very similar way. It is Kanye’s job to employ and hone Cudi’s superb sense of melody and hook-writing, while it is Cudi’s job to usher fans into a new soundscape that encapsulate Kanye’s larger vision. This generally happens on the second track of Kanye’s late-career albums—”Welcome to Heartbreak,” “Gorgeous,” “Father Stretch My Hands Pt. 1.”

Last week Page Six reported Kanye and Cudi are working on a secret project in Japan. It immediately punted fans back to a time circa 2008-2010 when the upper reaches of Kanye and Kid Cudi’s synergy were still being explored. Jay-Z and Kanye West might be rap’s collaborative monolith; Watch the Throne was two of hip-hop’s greatest and most prolific stars conceding ground to each other in the short-term to extend their dominance in the long-term. However, Jay-Z and Kanye’s collaborations have always had an air of formality, more business transaction than friendship. In that regard, Kanye West’s best collaborator remains his once-protege, writing partner, and G.O.O.D. Music signee.

Ever since 2008’s 808s & Heartbreak, Cudi has vocally gone where Kanye couldn’t, and Kanye has perfectly positioned Cudi within the confines of his vision. The idea of the two extending that chemistry across a project is as intriguing as it is promising. Here are the best Kanye and Kid Cudi collaborations to demonstrate how far the two could potentially push hip-hop again.

Album: No Mercy (2010)

Producers: No I.D., Kanye West

Kanye and Cudi have a way of smothering a song with their chemistry, making it hard for an artist outside of their orbit to feel at home. “Welcome to the World” is technically the first song from T.I.’s 2010 album No Mercy, but in reality it sounds like a lost Ye and Cudi collaboration. The most exciting part of the song is the pair back and forth on the hook. Ye holds down the raps, while Cudi sprinkles his trademark hums over the frenetic, haunting beat.

Album: Man on the Moon: The End of Day (2009)

Producers: Kanye West

Sampling Lady Gaga’s “Poker Face” in 2009 was a great idea, even if the results are a little cringe-worthy now. Eight years ago, hip-hop and pop were starting to converge in weird and unexpected ways. It was a time where sampling a year old Lady Gaga song seemed revelatory. Cudi and Kanye—in a rare move—decided to abandon their penchant for singing, humming, and fiddling with the outer boundaries of their voices to merely rap for the listener. It was fun then, and still is.

Album: My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy (2010)

Producers: Jeff Bhasker, Kanye West  

Cudi has a natural pocket. It's centered on his innate understanding of two things: melody and emotion. Kanye, ever the sonic tactician, has a knack for forcing Cudi into the best spaces to bring out his intuitive talents. On a song that houses fourteen vocal credits—including Rihanna, Fergie, Elton John, and Drake—it's no small feat that Cudi manages to carve out a space that is purely his own. His bridge isn’t long and it doesn’t say much. Still, there is something unforgettable about the way Cudi delivers, “Getting mine, baby/Got to let these niggas know, yeah/Getting right, babe/You should go and get your own.”

In concerts fans might scream Kanye’s, “MJ gone/Our nigga dead,” but in the confines our bedrooms it is Cudi’s bridge that breaks out the braggadocious two-step.

Album: The Life of Pablo (2016)

Producers: Kanye West, Rick Rubin

Kanye and Cudi bring out the light and dark in each other. Nowhere is this more apparent than on “Father Stretch My Hands Pt. 1.”

The song launched a thousand memes with the expert placement of Metro Boomin’s now infamous and producer tag “If young metro I don’t trust you I’m gon’ shoot you,” next to Cudi’s sweet sung “Beautiful morning, you’re the sun in my morning baby.” Over the Pastor T.L. Bennet sample, Cudi sounds like the leader of a congregation readying the listener for their travels into Kanye’s chaotic funhouse of models and bleached assholes.

Album: Yeezus (2013)

Producer: S1, Ackeejuice Rockers, Travis Scott, Mike Dean, and Kanye West

Kanye and Cudi arguably launched an entire sub-genre of rap with their melodic and heartfelt lyrics on 808s & Heartbreak. However, it wasn’t until 2013 that Kanye perfected what he birthed five years prior.

The beauty of “Guilt Trip” is in its abstractness. Kanye lyrics like “Capricorn/Dancing out on the lawn/Fancy like the things she likes,” are more refined and succinct in a way that wasn’t fully realized on

on 808s. The pinnacle of the song arrives at the end with a simple question posed by Cudi. “If you loved me so much than why’d you let me?” Cudi’s emotional warble dances across the dark electronic tribal beat. In a 2014 interview with Complex Cudi described his feelings about the record, “The vocal that I did on that song was a couple years old. I forgot which session it was, but it was just a reference...Then I started thinking about it more. It was like, Why not call me and have me come in there and give it? Why underuse me?”

The fact is Cudi wasn’t underused on the record. If time has taught us anything it is that in Kanye’s hand 50 seconds of Cudi hums and melodic ruminations speak more than some artist’s entire careers.