Image via Amazon Prime Video
Out now on Amazon Prime Video is A Man Named Scott, the new documentary on the enigmatic Kid Cudi, directed by Robert Alexander (The Shop), who was initially brought on back in 2019 to helm a project focusing on Cudi’s first album. That turned into a two-year process that found Alexander linking with many notable names in Cudi’s history, those who documented Cudi’s journey, and the Man on the Moon himself, learning as much about the man behind the music as the artist everyone says saved their lives.
“In a song, you only get so much,” Alexander tells Complex about his time spent with Kid Cudi. “To sit and connect with him and ask him to go into so much more depth on his music has been incredible.”
Think of this as an addendum to A Man Named Scott, which is now streaming on Amazon Prime Video. Get to know how Alexander took the interviews, archival footage, and new material from the likes of Jaden Smith, Shia LaBeouf, and Willow Smith and created a true homage to the life and spirit of Kid Cudi, as told by Alexander himself.
How the Project Began
“We started in 2019 in Tokyo, Japan, and honestly, it’s been a project that’s shifted in so many different ways. In its infancy, we were just trying to do a recap on Cudi’s first album. That’s what was kind of presented to me. Over the course of our first conversation and just anything about his impact, [it’s] so important to do like, a creative dissection of Cudi over a period of time. To be a culture-shifting artist, what sacrifice does it take? What are the steps of the process? That was how it kind of evolved to that place.”
Getting to Know Cudi
“I’ve been very blessed to work as a director in narrative and doc and commercials and everything for a long time. You come across amazing people, but the beautiful, the most exciting thing is when you get to just experience them as people, because there’s a very specific type of person who has the ability to switch between the charm and the human, the performer and the person. Cudi is probably tops at that ability with his smile and his expression and his humor, but seeing him kind of turn that off and being able to connect with me and trusting me to allow that side of him to be captured was really beautiful, because you could see someone who is incredibly intelligent, very hard working, cares so much about what he’s doing and cares so much about the people [that are] receiving what he’s doing. That alone is magical.
“In a song, you only get so much. To sit and connect with him and ask him to go into so much more depth on this music has been incredible.”
The Documentary's Structure
“I want this to be as broad as possible. I wanted to make a film about creativity. And Cudi is just the blessing that we get. He was willing to sacrifice his experience through the process of creativity. So, to me, obviously, he’s our voice and he’s the character study. To me, this is a much broader film about the creative process, and it was built to encourage people to express themselves creatively, unapologetically, and to feel safe to do that by looking at Cudi as a sample that you connect with. He’s not just the guy that you look up onstage, he’s the one that you can connect with. He goes through loss, we’ve gone through loss. He goes through moments where he feels insecure. We go through moments when we feel insecure. That’s why the film is broken up into parts; part of it is a documentary, part of it is a narrative play performed by Jaden, and part of it is a commercial for creativity. That was always the intention, to say, ‘What is the broader message about loving yourself and loving your own journey in the creative process?’”
Interviewing Kanye West
“Kanye was great. He was incredibly inviting. I think it says a lot to his relationship with Cudi that he was willing to do this, [to] sit with us and give so much. It was exciting because it wasn’t about just… I don’t like a film where you’re just glorifying someone. We had our conversation about Cudi's impact, but the heart of what we were talking about was just creativity and just what it means if you really want to push forward creatively—how do you have to evolve? You know what I mean? OK, you can be in the space or make something cool, but what are the influences that you’re bringing in to make something special and to try to stand out?”
Cudi's Reaction
“He was so kind. He actually called me a couple weeks ago to let me know that, for the first time, he was able to sit and watch the film over and over again, but not as like the critic or the producer. He said he was just watching as an observer, and he talked about how much it meant to him and how beautiful he thought it was and that sort of thing. That’s like mission accomplished for me. That was the purpose of all of this.”
His Favorite Moment
“I really love Pharrell in the open, because Pharrell is the inspiration, that early pioneer of ‘You can be a Black kid and you don’t have to just be gang affiliated,’ the stereotypes people put on you. You can be in popular culture and skateboard and like rock music and be yourself. So, it was so important for me to open it with him, because I think his ties to who Kanye is and [who] Cudi is and beyond and beyond, right?
“I was very happy with kind of how that intro and the montage we built in that first 90 seconds, because we didn’t originally have that. That was something after sitting around and I said, ‘This part.’”