“Everything is cool, everything is peace with everybody on the label, but I am announcing that I am no longer on G.O.O.D. Music,” Kid Cudi told Power 106 today. He elaborated that he wanted to concentrate on building his own stable of artists with Wicked Awesome and King Chip. He also mentions that his track with Pusha T, “Vortex”, did not make the album because he felt he had “too many girl songs on the album.”

G.O.O.D. Music has released a statement to Complex in regards to his departure, stating “G.O.O.D. Music supports Kid Cudi’s decision to leave the label.”

Q-Tip speaks on his new album, The Last Zulu, and spills some more details on the rumored Cruel Winter album, confirming it’s existence.

Q-Tip let loose a megaton bomb of a hint this weekend at the 2012 BET Hip-Hop Awards, when asked about his absence on the G.O.O.D. Music Cruel Summer LP, suggesting a quick, follow-up sequel to the compilation is in the works.

“I’m going to let the cat out of the bag, I’m sorry. Can I say something? Am I going to get in trouble? If there’s a Cruel Summer, then there’s got to be a Cruel Winter right? That’s all I’m saying.”

Pusha T responded with a “whoop!” and the interview abruptly ended….

Common, Pusha T, Cyhi the Prynce, Teyana Taylor and Big Sean talk about how recording “Cruel Summer” with Kanye was no Hawaiian vacation.

Big Sean, Common, CyHi The Prynce, and Teyana Taylor all sit in with Power 105.1′s The Breakfast Club, to speak on Cruel Summer, and what to expect from them in the future.

With all of the competition in the current rap space, the big dogs of hip-hop are snatching up all of the new talent fast, in order to build Wu-Tang-esque clans, crews, and cliques. It wasn’t quite like this ten or fifteen years ago, as you pretty much had the Wu and the BCC, and then everyone else trying to replicate this formula by signing their cousins and longtime homeboys (Harlem World, Terror Squad, Irv Gotti Presents The Murderererers, etc.) This quickly led to crew albums universally being seen as let downs. But in today’s age, the Lil Waynes, the Rick Rosses, and the Kanyes of the world have chosen a different strategy – building a power circle of established artists, with less weak links in the chain. Case in point is Kanye’s G.O.O.D. Music crew, which has been of quality from the jump – and most recently adding home run king Big Sean and relief pitcher 2 Chainz into the mix. This leads to a line-up of perhaps the strongest team in the game, also including Kanye himself, plus Common, Pusha T, John Legend, and Kid Cudi.

With the success of Kanye and Jay’s “N***as In Paris”, the direction taken on Cruel Summer is almost all trap-inspired club knockers, making this the first album of Kanye’s that’s gone in a decidedly more commercial direction. Let’s back that last statement up with a bit of a disclaimer, however. Kanye, being the trailblazer that he is, lends his own direction to this style of music – the lyrics raw, the vibe dark, the style unique; this isn’t your cookie-cutter rap shit.

That being said, the album produces a handful of “Monster”-esque posse cuts; that is, unpredictable line-ups over brooding production. We’ve heard most of this on the blog circuit already – such as the latest addition “Clique” (feat. Big Sean and Jay-Z), the already classic “Mercy”, the unfortunate Chief Keef endorsement “Don’t Like (Remix)”, Kanye’s mixtape cut “Way Too Cold”, and an extended version of “New God Flow” where Ghostface kills. These are the album’s strongest moments, which leads to a lot of the rest of the project to be a bit of a let down, save “The Morning” with Raekwon, Pusha T, Common, 2 Chainz, CyHi, and Kid Cudi.

Much of the rest of the album is uneven and seemingly randomly strung together. “Higher” over does it with high-fructose corn syrupy autotune, despite an impressive comeback verse from Ma$e, while questionable hooks from R. Kelly (“To The World”) and Marsha Ambrosius (“The One”) seem out of place with the rest of the album’s sinister tone. Meanwhile, the random Kid Cudi cut “Creepers” and the tacked on John Legend/Teyana Taylor collabo “Bliss”, feel largely out of place here.

Kanye’s standard will forever be measured up against My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, and as badly as Cruel Summer *wants* to be an album, it still comes off as an uneven compilation record. Sure, managing this many personalities at once probably was a challenge, but with this many characters in the fold, expectations were much higher. By and large, Cruel Summer‘s most satisfying moments we’ve already heard, we just wish there was an equal amount of heat saved for game day.

On the eve of the release of Cruel Summer, the G.O.O.D. Music crew steps in the building to freestyle on Funk Flex’s show. Each Big Sean, Common, CyHi The Prynce, and Pusha T make appearances.

Kanye West’s long-awaited G.O.O.D. Music compilation, due September 18th, gets a promo spot. The album has leaked, by the way. HHS review coming soon.

G.O.O.D. Music’s Cruel Summer LP drops September 18th (that still qualifies as summertime, right?). Preorders and snippets for the entire thing are up at Amazon right now, along with the tracklist, as you can see below:

01. To The World by Kanye West & R. Kelly
02. Clique by Kanye West, Jay-Z & Big Sean
03. Mercy by Kanye West, Big Sean, Pusha T & 2 Chainz
04. New God Flow by Kanye West, Pusha T & Ghostface Killah
05. The Morning by Pusha T, Raekwon, Common, 2 Chainz, CyHi Da Prynce, Kid Cudi & D’Banj
06. Cold by Kanye West & DJ Khaled
07. Higher by Pusha T, The Dream, & Mase
08. Sin City by John Legend, Travi$ Scott, Teyana Taylor, CyHi Da Prynce & Malik Yusef
09. The One by Kanye West, Big Sean, 2 Chainz & Marsha Ambrosius
10. Creepers by Kid Cudi
11. Bliss by John Legend & Teyana Taylor
12. Don’t Like by Kanye West, Chief Keef, Pusha T, Big Sean & Jadakiss

The latest offering from G.O.O.D. Music’s Cruel Summer super-group LP, which hits September 18th.

While the album has been pushed back an additional two weeks – now to be released on September 18th – it will now reportedly feature four additional guests, one of them being Mos Def. In the above interview with Vibe, “N***as In Paris” producer, Hit Boy, speaks on the album’s status.

In a recent interview with Rolling Stone, Pusha T spoke briefly on G.O.O.D. Music’s upcoming Cruel Summer compilation, but revealed very little….because he literally has no idea what to expect.

“I’ve done about 20 verses, but the album’s still a mystery to me because I don’t know what’s made it and what hasn’t,” he told Rolling Stone.

“It wouldn’t be right if the element of surprise wasn’t there for everybody involved except Kanye,” said Pusha. “That’s his magic, man.”

“There is some guest production,” confirmed Pusha. “But I’ve never heard anyone say in an interview who else is up there production-wise, so I don’t want to be the one to spoil it.”

The Cruel Summer album is due September 4th.

There’s an old adage of “packaging sells,” meaning the more elaborate the packaging, the more the consumer automatically assumes the product on the inside is as good as it’s outer layer suggests. Case in point. The G.O.O.D. Music Cruel Summer project will drop September 4th.