Kid Cudi
Man on the Moon: The End of Day

Campus Correspondent Review by Alyssa Vincent,
North Central College

Like any rapper worth their salt, Kid Cudi is not afraid to boast. Setting oneself up as a kind of “man on the moon” sets the bar high, but Cudi reaches and almost surpasses it. His flow isn’t hypnotically fast, but his lyrics are telling a story littered with sex, drugs, and family hardships. In other words, it makes for compelling listening. And he’s not without his clever puns either—on “Soundtrack 2 My Life,” Cudi begins with “I got 99 problems/and they all bitches”—a not-so-subtle nod to the king of hip-hop, Jay-Z.

Even if his narrative style seems different, that alone doesn’t do much to set him apart from other rappers. What does set him apart is his experimentation with the beats he uses, and the artists he chooses to collaborate with. While his partners on “Make Her Say” (Kanye West and Common) aren’t revolutionary, bringing in electronic giants Ratatat and MGMT is fairly new. It’s no surprise that the song that features both of those collaborators—“Pursuit of Happiness (Nightmare)”—is one of the strongest songs on the album.

As long as Cudi can maintain his superior abilities to tell a story over the course of an album, and his inventiveness when choosing collaborators, he may become the rapper that the next generation of musicians gives a nod to.

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