Kid Cudi has been known to transcend genre boundaries. That’s why his latest side project — a rock band named WZRD — wasn’t much of a surprise. In fact, it’s exactly what was to be expected, given rap’s new penchant for crossover attempts that succeed more often than not.

Rap’s first (and most startling) crossover starred Aerosmith and Run-D.M.C. The idea was reincarnated for Cypress Hill, and hard rockers Korn even dabbled in rap and recently dubstep. A romantic telling of the story would begin at 2010’s “My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy,” Kanye West’s sonically adventurous, genre-melding near-masterpiece.

But the current crossover trend took pop music by storm in 2010 with Lil Wayne’s much maligned “Rebirth,” where the rapper donned a guitar and slushed through Linkin Park-esque songs.

“Last year Drake”:https://www.dailyillini.com/index.php/article/2011/11/drakes_introspection_on_take_care_fails_to_transcend_culture_of_hiphop_bravado fully (and triumphantly, if not egotistically) stepped into the rhythm and blues arena.

Now its Cudi’s turn to get in on the action.

The rapper first flirted with rock on tracks like ““Erase Me,” “:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ICaTsTkBPV8&ob=av2ewhose bombastic, echoing kick drum and blaring guitar are arena-rock ready. Even the Ratatat-produced “Pursuit of Happiness” has a ’70s rock guitar interlude. But with WZRD, Cudi lets self-penned guitar riffs do most of the heavy lifting on his latest self-titled disk.

How does that sound? Exciting, mostly, but also a little predictable. The arrangements on WZRD are bold in their near-complete abandonment of signature rap sounds. But the end product sounds amateurish and almost incomplete.

Cudi’s made his inspirations for this project known: Black Sabbath, Jimi Hendrix, Nirvana and Pink Floyd, whose logo Cudi decided would look “good on his hand”:http://www.ballerstatus.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/2012-01-16-kc.jpg . Even if the inspirations weren’t explicitly spelled out, it wouldn’t take long to recognize them.

Spacey guitar strings here. Sparse, echoing guitar crescendos there. Some reverb on the power chords there. Maybe a little double-time thrashing on the chorus. That’s more or less the construction of a WZRD song — bits and pieces of sound pieced together onto one track.

The transitions are jarring and abrupt, and the best guitar parts are not fully realized. Had Cudi jammed on those parts a little more, he might have had some fluid pieces to work with.

Although not new to rock flourishes on otherwise hip-hop tracks, Cudi’s foray into arena rock required total reinvention on his part. So sue him if he and studio partner/band member Dot Da Genius need a bit of a learning curve. And if you allow them one, there’s a chance the group could deliver on the promise.

Consider the stand outs on WZRD. There’s the heavy, potent guitar and upbeat drums of “High Off Life,” which stands as the most fleshed-out riff and well-delivered chorus on the album. “Brake” contains building, echoing guitar strums that could have been lifted from any of Floyd’s slow-burning odysseys. To hear these influences get a face-lift from an unsuspecting — yet entirely plausible — source is thrilling, escapist fun.

The lyrics, though at times too self-pitying, are typical hair band fodder. Rather than get swept up in Cudi’s melodrama, we are transported to a time when the guitar told us more about the song than did the lyrics.

Maybe the inspirations weren’t as expertly blended and scattered as on “My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy,” but tune in for what it’s worth. It’s refreshing to see mainstream rappers experiment so drastically, but it’s downright awesome to finally see true divisions between genres disappear forever.

_Joe is a senior in Media._