WZRD (band)

WZRD
Origin	Cleveland, Ohio, United States
Genres	Psychedelic rock, Alternative rock, Acid rock
Years active	2010 – Present
Labels	Wicked Awesome, HeadBanga Muzik, Universal Republic
Members
Kid Cudi Dot da Genius

WZRD ^[1] is an American alternative rock duo, formed in New York City in 2010. It consists of American recording artist Kid Cudi and American record producer Dot da Genius. Originally named 'Wizard' Cudi renamed the band to 2 Be Continuum in April 2011 explaining, “I needed something more original, something different, but it’s still wizardry at its finest”.^[2] On November 18, 2011, Scott Mescudi announced the official band name as WZRD^[3] with the first album to be released on January 30, 2012^[4].

History

Early years and formation (2006–2010)

In addition to being very good friends, Dot da Genius has produced some of Kid Cudi's earliest work from his demos^[5], to songs on his critically acclaimed mixtape, A Kid Named Cudi (2008) which was the first project to feature their hit single, "Day 'n' Nite". Since then they have worked together on Cudi's first album Man on the Moon: The End of Day (2009) as well as his sophomore album, Man on the Moon II: The Legend of Mr. Rager (2010).^[6][7] It wasn't until they were recording "Trapped in My Mind" for Cudi's second album, that ideas of a rock album surfaced. In an interview with Complex magazine, Dot da Genius recounted the recording session: "It was pretty much the same time that we built a studio in Cudi's crib. We did "Trapped In My Mind" and we were dwelling on it like, "This is crazy, we need to put some guitar riffs on this." So I had my homie B-rent (Brint Ewart of Headbanga Muzik aka Woodro Skillson), come through Cudi's crib with his guitar, and Cudi did the guitar riff with his mouth cause Cudi couldn't play the guitar. So Brent* replayed it. Then Cudi picked up [Brent's*] guitar and started fiddling around with it, and I swear to you within like five minutes, he had a legitimate guitar riff. He never played a guitar a day in his life, but had a ill riff that we could make a song with."

2011-present

Kid Cudi first unveiled the project in January 2011 after returning to Twitter announcing a new album he was hoping to have out by the summer.^[8][9] On May 31, 2011 Cudi released the first offering from his rock project, a song titled "Perfect is the Word". It was the first song 2 Be Continuum worked on for their Wizard project.^[10] During a Ustream broadcast 2 Be Continuum revealed a song titled "Rocket" and announced it as the second single.^[11]

Kid Cudi and Dot da Genius recorded a song planned for the 2011 film Fright Night. The song, titled "No One Believes Me" was first announced June 7, 2011 through Kid Cudi's tumblr when he announced he will be shooting the music video for it on June 11th with Fright Night director Craig Gillespie. The video was released on August 12, 2011 and the song itself was officially released August 23, 2011.^{[12][13][14][15]} Through his tumblr Kid Cudi also unveiled the production credits for "No One Believes Me" and revealed that he was on guitar and drums and Dot da Genius was on bass, piano.^[16]

On November 10, 2011, Cudi went on twitter to announce that American indie-rock band Empire Of The Sun will be featured on the album.^{[17] [18]}

On November 18, 2011, Scott Mescudi announced that the album is currently undetermined ^[19] but will be released under the collaborative duo name of WZRD. ^[20]

Band members

Current members

• Kid Cudi – lead vocals, guitars, drums (2010–present)
• Dot da Genius – drums, bass guitar, keyboards, piano, percussion (2010–present)

Discography

• undetermined (2011) ^[21]

References

1. ^ http://twitter.com/wizardcud/status/137538406992449536
2. ^ Kid Cudi Announces New Label & Band Name
3. ^ http://twitter.com/wizardcud/status/137538406992449536
4. ^ http://twitter.com/wizardcud/status/137539161665183744
5. ^ Kid Cudi - Highs 'n' Lows Headbangamuzik.com
6. ^ Dot Da Genius Interview: Kid Cudi, Music School, Preferred Equipment
7. ^ Interview with Dot Da Genius – Part 1
8. ^ Kid Cudi Announces New Rock LP Wizard: Fans React
9. ^ Kid Cudi Re-Joins Twitter as @Wizardcud
10. ^ 2 Be Continuum Perfect is the World Song Sample
11. ^ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LnnEdeC4PMA
12. ^ http://twitter.com/#!/wizardcud/status/78154357035638784
13. ^ http://datnewcudi.com/2011/06/02/kid-cudi-dot-da-genius-no-one-believes-me-featured-in-fright-night/
14. ^ Cud Life
15. ^ No One Believes Me Amazon
16. ^ http://cudlife.tumblr.com/post/8951994123/no-one-believes-me-production-credits-produced
17. ^ http://twitter.com/wizardcud/status/134711119662157824
18. ^ http://twitter.com/wizardcud/status/134711264113983488
19. ^ http://twitter.com/wizardcud/status/137538636668346368
20. ^ http://twitter.com/wizardcud/status/137538406992449536
21. ^ http://twitter.com/wizardcud/status/137538636668346368