A Man Named Scott

 

Robert Alexander's documentary on hip-hop entertainer and actor Kid Cudi, A Man Named Scott (2021), is a highly affecting film. It is intriguing because Cudi, birth name Scott Ramon Seguro Mescudi, is so engaging as he and his collaborators describe his creative process, the substantial impact his musical vision has had on millennial culture, and the nearly crippling depression he's battled much of his adult life.

Cudi's emergence as a creative innovator tracks along with changes in the recording industry, which maddingly embraces both the "sure thing" and the "change agent" and wages fierce battles to contract and control bankable artists. Cudi attributes the success of his experimentalism to tapping into emotional veins that other rappers were either ignorant of or chose not to acknowledge. This left Cudi as a singular voice speaking to uncertainty and despair, feelings his listeners connected with.

Counted among his fans are celebrity friends who appear in the film, Shia LaBeouf, Jaden and Willow Smith, Timothée Chalamet, and, of course, Ye (formely Kanye West). His fans followed him devotedy through his musical explorations, they say, because his words never failed to be salient and important.

Alexander's film, his first documentary as a director, is artfully constructed, going beyond the usual interviews and file footage of concerts or recording sessions to incorporate theatrical performances that illuminate Cudi's narrative. It's a beautful and important work.