- Cudi makes it in America
Cleveland rapper Kid Cudi has a small role on HBO’s new sitcom, How to Make It in America. It’s about a small group of twentysomething friends trying to hustle their way into the garment industry — in between romantic dinners, brushes with mobbed-up relatives* and all-night parties in cool apartments. Normally, since we're snarky assholes who are hard to please, we’d say we’re watching it so you don’t have to. But it’s pretty all right. The half-hour episodes fly by.
The show’s producers include actor Mark Wahlberg, who broke into the game as a tough-talking white rapper who ran around in boxer shorts, and who, we’re guessing, is sympathetic to a rhymer who wants a larger role in a side of show biz that’s slightly less seedy.
Cudi — who’s billed in the credits as Chris "Kid" Mescudi — doesn’t have any previous acting experience, and the producers are easing him in. His character is named Ben, and that’s all we can tell you. He hasn’t done much so far. But his easy-going, likable manner, suggests he can make the transition if he wants it. It might agree with him better than touring.
If you’re not watching the show, we understand. The idea of a bunch of hipsters make their way through NYC is totally unappealing to our TV-friendly sensibilities. But they characters aren’t hipsters. Or maybe you traded HBO for Starz so you could watch Spartacus: Blood and Sand www.Starz.com/Spartacus , which is at least 15 times better than you’d think it would be. But two weeks into the show, How to Make It is toward the top of our DVR cue.
In case you’re a fan of the Kid and you don’t have HBO, C-Notes hereby launches a weekly running feature, the Kid Cudi Recap. Stay tuned every Monday. Or Tuesday. Maybe Wednesday. Whenever we watch it. Cuz there’s a lot of good TV, you know?
Week one:
Cudi made a brief appearance as a friend of the main guys. He doesn't rap or anything.
Week two:
Cudi gets a couple lines with no impact on the plot. But they're delivered in his apartment, in the presence of his hot model girlfriend. You also see his forearm tats. He doesn't punch anybody. —D.X. Ferris
(* Luis Guzmán (Boogie Nights, Out of Sight, Waiting) plays a character’s ex-con cousin who finances their budding denim line. Guzmán should star in at least shows — a comedy, a drama, and whatever the hell else he wants to do.)
