The chorus of "Don't Play This Song" goes: "Wanna know what I sound like when I'm not on drugs?/ Please, please don't play this song," which I would feel comfortable interpreting as pure comedy if he didn't say, "I love the dark, maybe we can make it darker/ Give me a marker," in dead earnest on "Maniac", a song that gathers a St. Vincent sample, CuDi, and emo-rapper Cage in the same room for probably the first and last time. Cudi himself was a.
He escapes the creatures that haunt him at night by turning himself into a larger-than-life entity: the man on the stage, the man on the moon.
KiD CuDi: Man On The Moon (The End of Day) (Album Review) by Rakeem Johnson September 17, 2009 May 18, 2010 4 . Man on the Moon, the debut album from this rapper-singer from Cleveland, is a colossal, and mystifying, missed opportunity, misguided if it is in fact guided at all. Since then, Mr. Solo Dolo has made studio magic with Kanye West, toured with Asher Roth, and stood in the sonic foxhole and engaged in verbal battle alongside Jay-Z. Kid Cudi’s take on hip-hop hedonism has as its purpose the escape from one’s own fears and neuroses. This album is a masterpiece, a true blending of styles that culminate in something that does not belong in the world of gangster rap.
", Probably the best debut album i have ever heard, Kid Cudi and his team (Emile, Pain Pat & Dot Da Genius) can't do no wrong.
Where the album seems to falter is that when there are genuine emotional experiences that overtake the listener in empathy (like the reaffirmation of his existence in “Heart of a Lion”), the songs are uninteresting production wise. This probably isn’t the best week for a Kanye West protege to drop his debut full-length album, but don’t feel too badly for Kid Cudi — with a couple of hit singles (the ubiquitous “Day ‘N’ Nite” and brilliantly crude “Make Her Say”) and one of the most heavily buzzed-about releases of the fourth quarter, he didn’t need to worry about any controversies dogging his label chief. Kanye West has repeatedly called kiD CuDi his "favorite living artist" ("and not just cause he's on my label," he assured us on Twitter). Man on the Moon is, loosely speaking, a concept album, divided into a series of “acts” that add up to 15 songs and just shy of an hour, but unless you really want to take the time to absorb Common’s periodic narration, you don’t need to concern yourself with the narrative arc; basically, all you need to do is settle in for a lot of thudding, vaguely ominous-sounding backing tracks, running from one to the next behind Cudi’s perpetually sleepy flow. Cudi would like to think this record is critic-proof, or at least that's what I cull from his decision to paraphrase the "there will always be somebody who will shoot down any dream" line from Kanye's "Bring Me Down". His latest album, Man on the Moon: The End of Day Talk about fear, paranoia, and the usual.
Ezra Furman and the Harpoons plot a fall tour of their own, Gene Simmons Selling Longtime Mansion to Escape "Unacceptable" California Taxes, Shia LaBeouf and Margaret Qualley Bare It All in New Music Video: Watch, Dave Bautista Slams Trump's Tough Guy Act in New Joe Biden Ad: Watch, Zack de la Rocha's Remix of OutKast's "B.O.B." “Alive” has faintly electro origins and this danceable guitar that is a living creature thrashing around periodically through the song.
If you read this, you can probably tell that i usually don't give reviews but this album is just that good. This first official release is a soul searcher and may require more patience than your everyday debut. Pitchfork is the most trusted voice in music.
Still, it does start to feel a little monotonous after awhile; if Moon is more sonically expansive than 808s, it also feels a little more claustrophobic, at least for its first two thirds. As a member of Kanye's revolving door of creative inspiration, he has proven himself to be indispensable. (It also features a Kanye verse that ends with a ridiculous "diarrhea" pun.) Cudi’s balancing act even takes a song like the Lady Gaga-sampling “Make Her Say”, which is nothing more than a three minute frat boy ode to oral sex and the album’s weakest track, seemingly have more depth within the context of the album. And a lot of Cudi’s power is in his simplistic rhymes and his delivery; it’s no flow but a whole-hearted attempt at singing with a voice that shouldn’t and one that still comes off as genuine and more powerful than any lighting quick vocal pace. This is not for a lack of talent. 10 years ago. But that number up there isn't a judgment of Cudi's pain, as much as it is an ability to express it-- being misunderstood in the Midwest and lost in the big city will never fail to inspire phenomenal art in twentysomethings, but Cudi too often assumes some sort of higher ground even though his self-pity is flaunted no differently than any other tacky rapper accessory. “Pursuit of Happiness” feels cutesy in parts with a simplistic piano part but washes over the song with Gospel quality during the chorus. CuDi's blank, artless affect makes a more interesting vehicle for these semi-poisonous sentiments: "Hide the pain with some pussy and mimosas," he mutters on "Wild'N Cuz I'm Young". And the sad part is that’s the best that tracks nine to 15 have to offer lyrically.
If you are a fan of hip hop you would know that this is different than most in this genre but that's what makes it such a great album. One of the best all-time hip hop debut albums, up there with "The College Dropout", "Reasonable Doubt", and "Doggystyle".
Kanye West's 808s and Heartbreak was undoubtedly a divisive record, but a rare one where it felt like both sides were essentially making the same argument: We care about it because it was made by Kanye West. "Look at me/ You tell me just what you see/ Am I someone whom you may love/ Or enemy," goes a particularly Brandon Flowers-like line of the otherwise effectively spare "Mr. Solo Dolo (Nightmare)". This is an album where Cudi is caught between his own nightmares and insecurities and being the the baller that the hip-hop community expects him to be.