Kid Cudi - "Man on the Moon: The End of Day"

Kid Cudi – Man on the Moon: The End of Day

Release Date: September 15, 2009

It feels like ages ago when I first heard the remix to the song “Day N Nite” by Kid Cudi. It honestly feels like I’ve been hearing it for over a year in bars/clubs, but it’s probably only been out for less than a year. Still, that’s an eternity in a time of instant technology. Since then, however, I’ve been wanting to hear what else Kid Cudi has up his sleeve. When I actually could hear the lyrics to the aforementioned song, I realized that there was something different about Kid Cudi that would be worth checking out. He wasn’t rapping about cars/guns/cliches, but was rapping about sadness and sleep and overall introspective themes. You might hear one, maybe two songs about ‘deep’ issues on a random hip-hop album, but Kid Cudi made it seem pretty natural, not forced.

After much Internet research earlier this year, I found out that Cudi only had released a mixtape entitled “A Kid Named Cudi.” Simple title, and the reviews were outstanding. I didn’t give the mixtape a thorough enough listening, although I did enjoy his “50 Ways to Make a Record,” which sampled Paul Simon.

Finally, I was able to listen to his latest: “Man on the Moon: The End of Day.” In the interim, I had heard “Make Her Say” featuring Common and Kanye West and heard growing hype over Kid Cudi’s yet-to-be-released-debut. Unfortunately, “Make Her Say” was more mainstream (although the song was quite good) and I was afraid “Day N Nite” was a fluke. It was not.

It turns out “MOTM” was to be a concept album, getting inside the head of the main character Kid Cudi, narrated by Common, and chronicling a night of his sleep, including songs that are labeled as ‘Nightmares’. I went into the album with high expectations and initially came away confused. This was an album I really had to listen to for a few days later to figure out whether I liked it or not.

Skip to a few days later and I am writing this ‘review.’ First, I’ll talk about production on the album. As far as that is concerned, the beats used are way different than you’d hear on a typical rap album. One might classify them as ‘futuristic’… I’d say the beats are taking advantage of the rise of ‘electronic’ groups such as Ratatat, who are actually featured twice on the album (‘Alive’ and ‘Pursuit of Happiness’, the latter also featuring MGMT), which wouldn’t be as futuristic as much as it would be ‘trendy’ in a way. Still, I gotta say that I haven’t heard any hip hop artist using beats like these, so for that I will give Cudi his ‘originality’ props.

However, I can’t help but think some of the songs could be helped production-wise. Frankly, some of the songs are EXTREMELY boring and I skip them every time I hear them. For example, ‘Solo Dolo’ features a very simplistic beat and Cudi rapping in a repetitive harmony, with a pretty mediocre chorus. It honestly sounds like a nightmare, and the song itself is labeled as one. Still, I think that songs such as ‘Solo Dolo’ could have been worked on a little more before being released while still keeping that ‘nightmare’-ish feel to it.

Kid Cudi is not a master with lyrics. He often rhymes words with each other, such as “universe” in ‘Soundtrack 2 My Life.’ Still, Cudi uses his debut album to talk about his inner struggles and how they come out through dreams, as well as his search for non-superficial or drug-induced happiness and does a fairly good job of it. The album is lyrically fairly consistent, with the large exception of “Make Her Say,” which is Track 12 in a 15 track album and my biggest problem with the general flow of the record. Frankly, this song should have been placed as a bonus track, as it obviously does not fit in with the rest of the album and was definitely created with the word ‘single’ in mind.

In the end, I don’t think this album is as groundbreaking or is that ‘seminal’ album as some reviewers might say it is. I think the hype was probably a little too much to overcome. There are definitely some highlights, though, that are worth mentioning. Besides ‘Day N Nite’, songs such as ‘Pursuit of Happiness’ (which took a lot of getting used to because it can sound similar to ‘Solo Dolo’ in the verse), ‘Alive’ (which sounds like it could have fit right into Ratatat’s ‘LP3′), and ‘Sky Might Fall’ have a lot of potential on the radiowaves. I have heard that ‘Happiness’ is going to be Cudi’s third single, and I’m guessing I’ll be hearing it a lot soon… just not at the same clubs I first heard ‘Day N Nite’ many MOONS ago…

Overall: 3 out of 5 stars.