KIDS SEE GHOSTS

The story is etched into late-2000s blog-era history at this point. Coming off a devastating breakup and the death of his mother, Kanye West turned to cyborg pop on his fourth album, 2008’s 808s & Heartbreak, to channel his darkest emotions. And the artist he brought into those sessions to write, feature, and inspire was a young rap crooner from Cleveland named Kid Cudi. Kanye had heard his eerie breakout single “Day ‘n’ Nite” and recognized his potential—as had swaths of fans, many of them teenagers, who saw in Cudi’s gloomy emo rap a bit of themselves. In return, West executive-produced Cudi’s 2009 debut album, Man On the Moon: The End of Day, and guested on the single “Make Her Say.” A decade later, Kanye and Cudi turned their spiritual connection into something official: the rap duo KIDS SEE GHOSTS. On their 2018 self-titled debut—partly recorded in Japan, partly in Wyoming—they brought the best out of each other’s ambitious styles. Cudi played the meditative loner, chomping out big hooks about big ideas like freedom and love, while a wild Kanye made gun noises and rapped some of his tightest verses in years. It was a masterclass in prog-rap, a melding of the minds between two of hip-hop’s most unconventional pop stars, and, hopefully, just the beginning of something more.