Chords for The Making Of Kid Cudi‘s “Pursuit Of Happiness” With E.VAX Of Ratatat | Deconstructed

_ _ _ _ _ _ _
My road to producing started with Pursuit [C] of Happiness. _
_ [A] _ _ _ [E] Ten years later, it's still, if not,
[Am] Pinketty's most popular, it's one of his [A] most popular songs.
He [E] just can't get on a stage [C] unless he performs
Pursuit [F] of Happiness like the Incredible [N] Riot.
[A] So [C] it's cool [F] to be part of something
that has longevity like [A] that.
_ [C] I'm on the pursuit of [Em] happiness
And I know [C] everything [Am] will shine
[Em] And I'm just gonna go [C] ahead
_ [F]
I'll be [Am] fine once again
[C] _ _ [F]
I'll be [Am] gone
_ _ The _
_ [Em] _ _ _ _ [C] day I made Pursuit of [Am] Happiness,
I had [Em] been in touch with Cudi a little bit.
[Am] I'm not sure how he got [F] turned on to Ratatat in [Am] the beginning.
He worked at a clothing [C] store.
At [F] that time, nobody had heard of him.
[Am] He was just this dude on Myspace.
_ [N] _ _ _ We had just done a [B] long tour in Europe and came [F#] home
and they were just [G#m] like,
Oh, you gotta play beats for Cudi [C#m] tomorrow.
This is my first time really playing beats [E] for a real rapper
that was gonna have a record out.
So I was like, [B] I'm gonna do something [F#] quick.
So he's [G#m] literally in a car on his way over
and I'm feeling around the [C#m] keyboard.
I had a [F#] sound that I had created on that keyboard
and I was like, [A#] well, maybe I can do something with this.
[B] Basically as fast as possible, just [E] laid that down
and then the doorbell rings, [B] I'm like, all right.
_ _ [F#] _ [G#m]
Instantly he heard that beat and he was like, oh [C#m] yeah.
I was just messing around.
I didn't really know that I [F#] was on to something yet,
but he had the ear for it.
_ [C#m] _ _ _ _ [B] _ _ [N] _
_ _ _ _ The first sound that I started with was that [C] keyboard sound.
_ [A] _ [E] keyboard _ _ [C] sound
[A] That's a Nord [E] Wave keyboard,
which is one of the worst keyboards I've ever [C] bought,
but [F] I did have that one sound.
It's basically [Am] an organ _ [G] tone
that's being run through a [F#] formant filter.
The second thing I did was I added some chords
that just totally follows the melody. _ _ _
_ [Am] _ _ _ _ [Em] _ _ _
_ [C] [Am] It's two pianos, playing really simple [Em] chords,
I think basically using the [C] melody as [F] root notes
[Am] and just filling it out with [C] some high, [F] sparkly piano.
[Am] _ _ _
_ There's like 3 kick drums here. _
_ _ _ _ There's a filtered version of the kick
that happens during the verses, I guess.
_ _ [N] _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _
There's a couple of snares, there's 2 or 3 snares. _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
There's a bunch of other white noise,
sort of like little fills. _
_ _ _ _ That's just like playing with the cutoff knob on the filter
and then there's all these. _ _ _
_ _ That's literally just like sitting there with the Nude Voyager.
_ _ There's some weird stuff in here.
There's like this little,
_ that's like from a recording _ of an Indian hand drum.
_ And then there's this other really weird thing.
_ _ _ _ It basically sounds like white noise,
but it's a recording of a radiator _ steaming.
If you take the kick and snare out,
the beat is actually really pretty weird. _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _
Then I took all of that and I threw it through a filter,
and that's the beat for the verse.
_ _ _ _ _ _ [G]
These guitars in the verse are super [C] simple.
_ [A] _
_ [E] _ _ _ _ [C] _ _ [A] _
_ _ [E] _ There's a harmony, [C] _ _ _
_ [Bm] _ _ _ _ [C] so we put it all together,
it starts to sound like something.
_ _ [F] _ _ [Am] _
_ _ _ [N] _ _ There's a bass guitar.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _
This is the solo that Mike did
when _ we went into the studio with Cudi.
_ [Am] At [E]
the _ _ [G] _ _ _ _ [E] _
_ _ _ _ [Am] _ _ _ [Gm] _
_ [E] _ _ _ [Am] _ _ [G] _ _
[D] _ _ _ very [A] end, we brought in these, some more keyboards.
It's like 4 layers of a similar idea.
_ _ _ _ [N] _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ [C] _ _ _
_ Cudi did like lower octaves of his voice
on the chorus that I always thought was cool.
But there's like 6 layers of him on the chorus.
I'm on the pursuit of happiness
And I know everything that's shining
Always gonna be gold, hey
I'll be fine once I get it
I'll be _ good
_ I'm on the pursuit of happiness
And I know everything that's shining
I always like those low octaves, so this is what it sounds like.
_ _ _ [A] _ _ [E] _
_ _ _ [C] It's one of those [A] things where it happens [E] so fast
that I didn't have time to [F#] over-polish it or [F] anything.
It stays [A] true to this very simple, straightforward [C] beat.
[F] It suits what Kid Cudi [A] ended up doing with it.
_ [C] _ _ _ _ _
[Em] _ _ _ [C] The music [Am] is so easy to relate [Em] to that it all kind of fits [C] together.
If [F] I had spent a week [Am] on it or something,
I probably would have made [C] it too complicated,
[F] and it would have [C] resonated that [Am] same way.
_ _ _ _ Cudi's [Em] _
become this [Am] real mythical character
for I think [Em] people of a certain age
because he [C] was just speaking [F] frankly on his [Am] tracks
in a way that nobody was used to hearing rappers speak.
If you mention Kid Cudi to certain people, they're just like,
oh, that's the guy.
I've heard so many people [Em] say,
[C] oh, I wouldn't be here if it wasn't [Am] for Kid Cudi.
[Em] _
It's pretty amazing that [C] just being frank and [F] honest with people
[Am] turned into this super solid connection,
and it's very [F] lasting, obviously.
[Am] Uh
_ _ _ Day _ _ [C#] _
_ and night was on the radio at that point,
and I was like, I kind of wish we made a real hit like Day and Night.
But then it turns out this ends up being,
it has such a crazy life. _ _ _