Can Kid Cudi’s Animated Special Beat ‘The Simpsons’ & ‘Rick and Morty’ for an Emmy?

From Pedro Pascal (The Last of Us) to Jenna Ortega (Wednesday), there were a handful of Latine actors nominated for a 2023 Emmy Award on Wednesday (July 12). One of the talented Latines who earned a non-acting nomination was rapper and actor Scott “Kid Cudi” Mescudi (Bill & Ted Face the Music). Kid Cudi was nominated for creating the Netflix animated TV special, Entergalactic, which served as a visual companion piece to his 2022 album of the same name.

“This is huge!!!” Kid Cudi tweeted after the nominations were announced. “Congrats to the whole team who busted their a–es for 3 years and brought this bad boy to life!! Now, the big question: What to wear??”

The animated musical is a New York love story between street artist Jabari (Kid Cudi) and photographer Meadow (Jessica Williams). Months before its premiere on Netflix last year, Kid Cudi knew he had something special.

“Entergalactic is gonna be something really f—ing special,” he tweeted. “Minds will melt. This cast?? The MUSIC?? Listen. U heard it here first. Remember this tweet.”

Now that it’s nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Animated Program, Kid Cudi is going up against some heavy competition. Also nominated in the same category are former Emmy winners Bob’s Burgers, Rick and Morty, The Simpsons, and Genndy Tartakovsky’s Primal, which is a Cartoon Network series set in a prehistoric world.

Along with Kid Cudi and Williams, Entergalactic features the voices of Timothée Chalamet, Vanessa Hudgens, Jaden Smith, Macauley Culkin, Arturo Castro, and Luis Guzmán.

Co-creator and executive producer Kenya Barris joked that even though he is supposed to probably “play it cool” hearing that Entergalactic was nominated, he can’t do it.

“F— that,” he said. “There are so many incredibly talented artists from every medium – animation, music, writing, art, fashion – that came together to make this project happen and it is so gratifying to see the hard work of the entire Entergalactic team recognized in this way.”