Kid Cudi has behaved erratically over the last couple of years, to say the least. After the much-acclaimed release of 2009's "Man on the Moon: The End of Days," Cudi hemmed and hawed about his next collaborations and the name of his second album (eventually settling on "Man on the Moon II: The Legend of Mr. Rager" in 2010). He's told the press he wasn't going to guest on any more records. And then he guested on everybody's record this year (including Wale, who used a boost from quite a few rappers). He slowly been melding more rock into his sets, he dissolved his old record label and started a new one and even got arrested.

Dude is busy. Good thing he's talented, and it shows on "Brake."

"Brake" is the second third fourth third-and-a-half song to arrive from his collaboration with producer Dot da Genius, also from his home town of Cleveland. The duo operated under two different names over the last year but now seem to have settled on WZRD.

The first track from now-WZRD was "No One Believes Me" (heh), but under Cudi's name. Follow? The video was cool, the music an even bigger indication of what was to come, the rock-centric "Brake."

The track's got a big, big kick drum sound and a stoner guitar mucking around the high clanks and ghost choir. "I'm gonna find my way..." he says with cavernous reverb, the aural equivalent of a 1,000-yard stare. You can feel the track lifting up, a calamity coming on the other side of the hill, as the voices heighten... then it trickles away into synth land. I'm all for the blue-ballin'. Good going, Cudi, I need a shower and a nap.

Cudi's aware that this won't make his hip-hop fans happy, but he's taken his argument -- including choice four-letter words -- over to his Twitter for detractors to peruse.

Cudder's threatening a full-length WZRD album to arrive on his birthday, on Jan. 30, 2012. We'll see if the attention span keeps up. Did I mention he's still starring in HBO's "How to Make It In America" as Domingo Brown?