As Drake and Kanye West have demonstrated, there's room in hip-hop for melancholic MCs who upend the self-congratulation that dominates the genre. The problem with Kid Cudi is that, since his hypnotic breakout single, "Day 'N' Nite," he's grown rote in his self-pity and flat as a singer: "These worries are heavy, they rest on my shoulders," he repeats in his hypomelodic baritone on "These Worries." "The darkness, yeah, I'd like to marry it," goes a line from "Maniac." His second album features dramatic, breathtakingly stark production by Emile and Plain Pat ("Wild'n Cuz I'm Young," riddled with sonar-style beeps, kills), but where Cudi fancies himself a deep downer, too often he's kind of a bore.

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“Oh Sherrie”

Steve Perry's girlfriend Sherrie Swafford was actually in the studio when Perry began writing this song--his lone Top Ten hit as a solo act--with two co-writers. The trio began at midnight one night with just "Oh, Sherrie!" and "hold on, hold on." Three hours later, they had a complete song. Swafford, however, had to wait until the next day to hear it. "Sherrie actually got tired and went to bed," Perry said. She also appeared in the video, but their relationship did not hold on for long.