Kid Cudi has always been one of my favorite artists. Ever since I first started listening to him back in my Sophomore year of high school, he has remained a favorite of mine. Like many of his loyal fans, his decision to start the band WZRD instead of completing Man on the Moon 3, the final album of his trilogy, was an upsetting decision. What made thinks worse is many people didn’t like WZRD, myself being one of them. After completing WZRD, the first song Cudi released was “Just What I am” featuring King Chip. While this song came out awhile ago, I still listen to it often. The inspiration for the song was the pressure Cudi was feeling between his fans and his critics. His fans were demanding he return to a solo rapper while his critics were on his case about marijuana use. For a time Cudi quit weed entirely, and this song is his proclamation of returning to it. Cudi decided that his life is his life and if people hate, he can’t do anything about it because in his own words, “I’m just what I am.”

The first verse is Cudi discussing how he is who he is. God made him the way he is and no one can tell him otherwise:

I’m just what you made God
Not many I trust
Ima go my own way, God
Take my faith to wherever you want
I’m out here, on my son
Won’t stop ’til I get me some
Club hoppin’ tryin’ to get me some
Bad bitches wanna get me sprung
Early in the morning, I’m wakin’ bakin’
Drankin’, contemplatin’, ain’t no such thing as Satan
Evil is what you make it

The first 4 lines say it all: “I’m just what you made God / Not many I trust / Ima go my own way, God / Take my faith wherever I want.” While in the eyes of some religious people Cudi’s use of marijuana and partying can be viewed as a waste of time, it’s who he is and no one else can tell him what’s right and wrong. Our own moral compasses rule our lives, and we have a choice to follow any religion we choose. Although people wanted Cudi to stop smoking, his chorus proclaims his decision to go back to it:

I need smoke
I need to smoke
Who gon’ hold me down now?
I want to get high y’all
I want to get high y’all
Need it to get by, y’all
Can you get me high y’all?

While many people are against the use of weed, Cudi sees no harm in it because it is who he is. Weed has always been a part of his life and helped him create some amazing music, so why should he quit? In a world with so many social pressures, sometimes the best thing to do is what we think is right. The second verse ties a lot of Cudis ideas together:

Let me tell you bout my month y’all
Endless shopping I had a ball,
I had to ball for therapy, my shrink don’t think that helps at all, whatever
This man ain’t wearing these leather pants
I diagnose my damn self, these damn pills ain’t working fam’
In my spare time, punching walls fucking up my hand
I know this shit sound super cray, but if you had my life you’d understand
But, I can’t fold, some poor soul got it way worse
We’re all troubled, in a world of trouble
It’s scary to have a kid walk this Earth

This verse goes more into detail with what Cudi was dealing with, specifically problems with his family. When he quit weed, he saw a therapist who prescribed him pills and tried to use therapy as aid. Cudi thought it was all a waste of time, which he says: “I diagnose my damn self, these damn pills ain’t working fam'”. To clarify, Cudi doesn’t have a weed problem. His smoking doesn’t inhibit anything about his life. He chose to stop initially so that his daughter wouldn’t be poorly influenced by him. Over time, however, Cudi saw that there really was no reason to stop if his use doesn’t affect his work or family.

Cudi sums up all the stresses, pressures, and criticisms he dealt with in the last few lines: “But, I can’t fold, some poor soul got it way worse / We’re all troubled, in a world of trouble / It’s scary to have a kid walk this Earth.” As he says, there are absolutely people who have a worse life than Cudi. Everyone deals with social pressures, some worse than others, which make having children difficult. It’s incredibly difficult to raise a child without having them experience suffering. Life is hard and it continues to grow harder with increased competition in school, increased aclohol and drug use, and increased violence. Sometimes there’s nothing you can do but stop worrying, which Cudi decided and did when he returned to weed. And while people may criticize him for it, can you really blame him? He’s not doing anything harmful and he’s dealing with stress in a way that works for him. I’m sure if any of us could find a way to do the same, we would.

Listen to the song here: