American wordsmith Kid Cudi has slammed rap culture, saying that “the braggadocio, money, cash, hos thing” is holding back black people as a culture and that more artists should use their music to send positive messages to kids.
The 30-year-old Cleveland native made the comments on talk show The Arsenio Hall Show, after being asked what hip hop needs and what message he’d like to send to his colleagues:
“I think the braggadocio, money, cash, hos thing needs to be deadened. I feel like that’s holding us back as a culture, as black people. It doesn’t advance us in any way, shape, or form. We’ve been doing that same thing for years now. It’s been, what, four decades of the same old bullshit.”
He went on to tell host Arsenio Hall that he believes the power of music should be used for good, saying, “All I wanted to do is help kids not feel alone and stop kids from committing suicide.”
And the Day ‘n’ Nite artist confessed that his mission comes from his own experience:
“I dealt with suicide for the past five years. There wasn’t a week or day that didn’t go by where I wasn’t just like, ‘I want to check out,’ you know? I know what that feels like. I know it comes from lonliness. I know it comes from not having self worth, not loving yourself.”
Cudi released his fourth studio album last month, Satellite Flight: The Journey to Mother Moon, and is set to appear at the Chillean and Argentinian instalments of Lollapalooza festival in April.
WATCH: Kid Cudi: Hip Hop Is “Holding Us Back As A Culture”
http://youtu.be/xDLmN84RQbo
