(Ssshhhh,
I know I’m a day late, but don’t tell Steve. I don’t want to go back to the writer’s
cellar. It’s dark and scary down there. I also didn’t go to bed before 5AM the
last 4 nights, so cut me some slack.)
I
know what you’re saying – “but NJWB, you’re supposed to be providing me with
new, underground artists, not mainstream successes”, and to that, I say that
this is my goddamn article, and I’ll talk about whatever I goddamn want
What
I’ve noticed is that people tend to overlook Kid Cudi’s first album. They look
at his mixtapes and his drug-infused sophomore effort. While those are solid
pieces of work, they just didn’t blow me away like Man on the Moon: The End of
Day. Kid Cudi was the second rapper to gain any traction with me back in the
day, after Kanye West finally convinced me that rap could be a legitimate art
form. Before that, I enjoyed such amazing bands like Linkin Park, From First to
Last, Escape the Fate, and Armor for Sleep. Yeah, middle school and early high
school were some rough years for me, musically. (and socially, but the doctor
says I shouldn’t talk about - OHGODMAKEITSTOPMAKEITSTOPMAKEITSTOP).
Without
Kid Cudi getting the support from fellow Chicago rapper Kanye West and his GOOD
Music label, there would be no Drake, no Childish Gambino, and one can argue
that even 808’s and Heartbreak by Kanye West wouldn’t be around if it weren’t
for him. Whether you think that’s good or bad, you can’t deny the impact to the
industry that he has had since being introduced to the world in the Spring of
2009.
I
remember hearing “Day N Nite” and thinking “this will be the future of rap”,
and while it took a few years, I think we’ve finally arrived at my vision of
what rap could be. No more is the rap album filled with money, hoes and
clothes, but you get softer, more emotional and self-deprecating songs like
Drake’s “Marvin’s Room”, Childish Gambino’s entire collection, XV’s video game
influenced rap, and the emergence of successful rappers of all skin colors. Even
Lil Wayne got in on the fad with the…interesting(?) “How to Love”. Basketball
players now show up to a press conference in a backpack, black plastic glasses,
and a bow tie without anyone thinking twice. And you better believe that I’m
attributing that to Kid Cudi.
So
what makes Kid Cudi, and more specifically Man on the Moon: The End of Day, so
good? It’s a cohesive album. I mentioned it last week when I
talked about Kendrick Lamar’s Section.80 (you should totally check it out; the
article is really good), but I’ll go a little further today, because, hey we
got some time. No need to rush.
It
comes across like Kid Cudi had a plan when he made MotM: TEoD. He created a
complete story of a boy, Scott, who drifts off to sleep and goes into a various
dreams, both good and bad, before waking up excited to take on the day. There
are three, 3 song sections, followed by a 4 song section and a 2 song section. Breaks
in the sections are narrated by Common, giving a little more context to each
grouping of tracks.
The
first section is the exposition of the story; “In My Dreams” is slow and
hypnotic, as it carries our hero off to sleep. The next 2 songs, “Soundtrack 2
My Life” and “Simple As…” explain who Scott is, and the troubles of his life. The
next section, entitled “Rise of the Night Terrors”, comes in and provides us
with tracks about Scott’s loneliness and the hard work he, without help from
anyone else, put in to make it where he is today. Act 3, called “Taking a
Trip”, is the exactly what you think it is; things take a turn for the weird as
Scott explores his deep subconscious, culminating in the sexual and soulful
“Enter Galactic”. The next section, “Stuck”, is where all of his partying songs
are. The tracks in this section, like “Make Her Say” and “Pursuit of Happiness”
are more about Scott’s vices and how they make him act, rather than celebrating
getting high or drunk or having sex. Then the album is rounded off with 2 songs
of Scott waking up, and smoking a bunch of weed, and just being happy to be
alive, although the peppy “Up Up and Away”, does have some dark undertones in
the lyrics, with implications that this is only temporary, and the entire
experience will all happen again the next night.
I
know – So what? Who cares? Well, I care. Think about; when was the last time
you heard such a cohesive, tight, story-driven rap album? Concept albums come
up all the time, although they are fairly rare in rap. And even fewer are as
concept-y as this one. I’d even go as far to say that few rock albums are as
concept-y as this one. This was one of the first times that traditionally
“black” music didn’t just borrow, but embodied aspects usually reserved for “white”
music. Between the concept album, the personal and depressing lyrics, and the
overall image Kid Cudi developed, white kids could finally find their spot in black
culture, and black kids could finally find their spot in white culture without
feeling like outcasts in either.
Of
course, it also helps that The End of Day is a fantastic album, and definitely
should be celebrated (John, get on that). There’s barely a track on there that I
can’t enjoy on some level, from the dark beats of “Alive”, to the lyrical
density of “Soundtrack 2 My Life”, to the fun, echoing guitars on “Up Up and
Away”, it’s album that I can always go back to and love listening to.
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