Wow, this news was quite the shocker when it came out! Apparently Kid Cudi has decided to part ways with his longtime label G.O.O.D Music, Kanye West's record label. This comes quite surprisingly as he has always been one of the most prominent members of the team and has been repping the label loudly. Just last year, he still seemed very involved when Complex magazine interviewed the entire roster as part of a series on the label in line with the release of the first label compilation "Cruel Summer".
However, that album already had quite a few people complaining on why Kid Cudi wasn't really involved in the majority of songs and therefore had to step back to cameos at performances and videos like the "Mercy" clip. This already seemed quite strange, as Kanye West had always said that Kid Cudi was one of his favorite artists. For him to be basically left out of the loop, must have felt a little disappointing especially because he did not really fit entirely to the new style of traphouse inspired thuggish boasting that Kanye seems to love right now.

Actually this goes for some of the other members as well such as Q-Tip, Yasiin Bey (aka Mos Def) and Common for example. They all must have felt a little displaced by the label's new direction.

It feels to me like, Kid Cudi needed a change after he has gone through his little crisis of excessive drug abuse, rehab, and kind of flopping rock album WZRD (which actually contains quite a few good songs if you give it a few more spins!). Therefore the split might be a good thing, especially after the release of his third solo album "Indicud" next month that serves as the ending to a trilogy.

Kid Cudi did not really speak on a new label yet and it seems like he wants to stay indipendent which would give him much more freedom to release his music, this way he would be able to drop more songs which could be good for his experimentive persona.

However, I still think that this takes quite some talent from the label's roster and I just hope that they split in good spirits as Kid Cudi has pointed out. If we still get collaborations from Cudi and G.O.O.D-music artists as well as new solo songs and projects with musicians from other genres I think his decision can only be positive!

Check out a timeline on Kid Cudis involvement with G.O.O.D Music over at Complex as well as the radio interview where Cudi revealed his decision.