Kanye West's experimental short film, Cruel Summer, celebrated its premiere during a fancy party Wednesday night during the Cannes Film Festival. The visual piece was projected onto seven screens inside a tented pyramid, designed to give viewers a fully immersive experience. Accordingly, plot details have invaded the interwebs. Hence, Cruel Summer stars G.O.O.D. Music artist KiD CuDi as a car thief who falls for a blind Arabian princess. The seven screens alternately come on and off, sometimes showing different angles of one shot, other times acting as an extended wide screen, complete with a ceiling and floor. Consequently, the audience looks around them at the images, instead of staring straight ahead, which,is supposed to reflect real life according to Kanye himself

"It related to a post-Steve Jobs, post-Windows era, where we're always on our BlackBerry in a ball game or at the movies," West said. "I was very particular about having the screens separate, where your mind puts the screens back together, the way you put memories together. I'm not the best director in the world, but I had an idea that I thought would be amazing to inspire people, like a dream of one day this being the way people watch movies. You know, [Quentin] Tarantino doing a movie like this or a horror movie like this, animation, 3-D ... in this form that surrounds you. People want to go back and see it more and more because they missed something to their left or to their right, and it feels more like the experience of life."

Similar to Kanye's 2010 first movie project Runaway, the short film plays like an extended music video, without much dialogue and striking slow-motion images set to a vibrant soundtrack. The music comes courtesy of various G.O.O.D. artists, many of whom make cameos in the film, including comedian Aziz Ansari. Co-directed by Alexandre Moors, the script was based on a screenplay by Elon Rutberg, and it was shot entirely in Qatar in the Middle East.

"We were literally shooting in Qatar less than a month ago," West said. "It was the most impossible feat, all odds were against us having this moment, showing this at Cannes. The reason why I went so hard is that this is my goal. What I want to do post-Grammys is I want to change entertainment experiences. Like if [late fashion designer Alexander] McQueen or [director] Tarsem [Singh] was to meet the entertainment value of Cirque du Soleil or Walt Disney. We're going to bring it to New York to Qatar and re-edit it ... so you guys are seeing the rough draft of this concept."

With Kreayshawn's Somethin’ Bout Kreay album due out this summer, word has just hit the streets that the young artist will be awarded with a guest appearance from KiD CuDi. On top of Cudder, 2 Chainz and Diplo are also slated to assist the West Coast rapper on her anticipated project. Stay tuned for more news as well as coinciding cuts from Somethin’ Bout Kreay. Are you surprised by the Cudi feature?

As far as hip-hop festival line ups go, it’s a case of old, new and everything in-between for Rock the Bells Festival this year. Veterans include the likes of Nas, Method Man & Redman, Dipset, Ice Cube, Slick Rick, Prodigy, Big Daddy Kane and rappers prominent in the present day include KiD CuDi, Wiz Khalifa, A$AP Rocky, Tyga, 2Chainz and more. The festival will span over three weekends in three different cities starting off at the NOS Events Center in San Bernardino, California on August 19/20, moving onto Mountain View, California on August 25/26 at the Shoreline Amphitheatre, and ending up on the East Coast at the PNC Arts Center in Newark, New Jersey on September 1/2. Head over to Rock the Bells’ website for ticket information.

Seemingly out of nowhere comes a behind-the-scenes clip from the shoot of WZRD's new video for their lead single "Teleport 2 Me." The music video's directors Bill Barminski and Christopher Louie sit down and share some words on the upcoming visual's concept and directions. Watch it above.

We told you that CuDi would be back with some new raps fairly soon. But what none of us really knew was that it would be this quickly. The versatile Cudder comes through with a midnight release of a new track interestingly titled "Dennis, Hook Me Up With Some More of That Whiskey!" Along with his return to hip-hop, the piece also notes production from the Cleveland-bred entertainer himself. Let us know what you think after checking it below.

Source: Complex

High honors for Kanye West. As NY Daily News reports, Kanye is readying his debut film for an unveiling at the prestigious Cannes Film Festival. While the 30-minute film unveil sounds good in theory, sources close to West point out that he has yet to shoot a single frame for the film — a project that he is producing, writing, directing and scoring. The project is rumored to star fellow emcee Kid Cudi and is potentially classified in the “thriller” genre. Known for his last-minute approach for ambitious and often times arduous projects, only time will tell if West finishes it in time for Cannes.

Ready for some new Cudi where he's actually rapping? Well, to accommodate, as he has promised he would do this year, the versatile artist recently debuted a new track while performing in Geneseo, New York. The cut was produced by his pal Dot Da Genius and highlights Cudder returning to his hip-hop tendencies. We apologize for the less-than-stellar aesthetics, but thankfully the audio is fairly on point. Let us know if you're digging what you hear.

After dropping off the video a week ago, Steve Aoki is back with a set of remixes for his Kid Cudi and Travis Barker-collaborated track "Cudi The Kid." The fresh EP highlights six reworkings of the intriguing single, which you can sample two minutes of each track below. If you like what you hear, you can then purchase the entire work via iTunes.

With his debut album Wonderland being in stores, Steve Aoki drops the visualization of his Travis Barker-powered KiD CuDi collaboration "Cudi the Kid." The dubstep-inspired party anthem is visually translated with bizarrely comedic and dramatic impressions of Cudder's ambitious childhood dreams. Watch the entertaining clip above and check out our conversation with Mr. Aoki here.

Kid Cudi explained to Big Boy's Neighborhood his plans for the rest of the year and why he has not been rapping lately. The G.O.O.D Music member stressed that he hasn't been inspired to rap and is more interested in releasing another WZRD album before dropping Man on the Moon 3 in 2014. Although we won't be expecting a full-length rap album, or mixtapes for that matter, Mr. Rager will be making some guest appearances this year. Tune in to the interview below and leave your comments.