Kid Cudi contains multitudes. He’s Mr “Solo Dolo,” the lonely stoner. He’s Kanye West’s younger brother, in the same way Ye saw himself as the sibling to JAY-Z. He’s a rockstar , a rapper, an actor —an artist. If you’ve recently listened to the Cleveland native, as you might have done on his Kids See Ghosts album or as a guest feature (most notably on “A$AP Forever REMIX” ), you’ll know he’s “reborn,” feeling “free as a bird.” Yes, he’s still _hhmmmyhheah_-ing his way into the stratosphere, but something about Cudi these days feels lighter, bright, less colored with darkness.

For those well versed in the 34-year-old’s backstory, it’s triumphant and heartwarming to witness his newfound mental clarity—as though a weight has shifted from his being. Like so many of us, Cudi has experienced setbacks, anxiety, the whole tribulation of being human. He displays these experiences in his music, and in doing so has become a deeply revered yet relatable individual. "He’s the most influential artist of the past ten years," says Kanye West. While it’s impossible to quantify that statement, it does hold some strong weight when surveying the rap landscape.

It all started with A Kid Named Cudi. Released ten years ago today, the mixtape introduced Cudi’s versatile soundboard to the world, then it sent him skyward with incredible, rocket-like velocity. Two months after the tape dropped, for example, Cudi was signed to G.O.O.D Music—the label owned by West, who put out six albums in six weeks earlier this year. And, more impressively, before the sun set on 2008, Cudi had been in writing sessions for West’s 808s & Heartbreak ("Robocop," "Welcome to Heartbreak," "Paranoid," and "Heartless") and JAY-Z’s The Blueprint 3 ("Already Home"). In the league of big breaks, Cudi was quickly written in as an up-and-coming legend of the new-school, already working with rap’s two big names.

When retrospectively considered, 808s is widely seen as the turning point at which rap shed its braggadocious stereotype and opened up its heart. But while it’s true that 808s had a vast impact, preparing music culture for an act like Drake, there’s a chance the album wouldn’t have been possible without Kid Cudi. Let’s not speculate though. Instead, on its anniversary, lets return to A Kid Named Cudi. What makes it a special and impressive debut record? And before getting into that, what’s the backstory leading up to its release? Who, how, and what is Kid Cudi?

Like many of a similar age, Cudi relocated to a big city in his early twenties—in this case New York, with just $500 to his name. For a while he stayed with an uncle in South Bronx. After picking up a job, he moved into an apartment with the producer Dot Da Genius, who would later engineer A Kid Named Cudi and produce two tracks ("Day 'N' Nite" and "Cleveland is the Reason"). Though Cudi had long been crafting his sound—an early demo track called "Party All The Time," reportedly recorded in 2001, is a lot of infamous humming—it wasn’t until around 2006, after another producer introduced him to then A&R Plain Pat, when things started to fall into place. As reported in a 2010 Spin interview, Plain Pat didn’t immediately sign Kid Cudi. However he did bring him under his wing—an important partnership since Pat also worked with West (and at one point managed the two artists).