As soon as Kid Cudi (a.k.a. Scott Mescudi) entered the modern hip hop scene, he took it by storm. Young people immediately caught on to him, blasting songs like “Day N’ Nite,” “Soundtrack 2 My Life,” “Pursuit of Happiness (The Nightmare)”and “The Prayer” from their cars, dorm rooms or wherever else they were when Man on the Moon: The End of Day started getting popular. Needless to say, Cudi had quite a high standard set for himself upon the release of his second full-length album this past Tuesday, Man on the Moon II: The Legend of Mr. Rager.
Man on the Moon: The End of Day worked well as an album, focusing on Cudi’s troubled past and especially his lifelong tormentor – night terrors. Throughout the album, Cudi talked about his nightmares, his father’s death, loneliness, drugs and his general disregard for the reality of the world. It was a highly energetic, clever and overall well-composed album.
Man on the Moon II: The Legend of Mr. Rager has Cudi focusing more on the reality of his present life and not so much on the demons of his past that continue to haunt him in his dreamworld. Still, Cudi seemed to have less direction and less enthusiasm for his own music compared to his debut album.
The opening track, “Scott Mescudi Vs. The World,” is certainly the strongest on the album. The beginning of the song has a pretty dark ambience, even for Cudi, but Cee-Lo Green from Gnarls Barkley brightens it with his beautiful delivery of the song’s memorable chorus. Cudi’s rap during the song is very haunting and engaging but Cee-Lo’s vocals really make the song stand out amongst others on the album.
The second track and, additionally, the second strongest song of the album, “REVOFEV,” has a nice melody and a pretty steady beat. It’s dark, but the lyrics are still fairly optimistic: “Let’s go / Life does get tough / No need to stress / Hold you back too much.”
“Don’t Play This Song” has Cudi talking about his experiences with drugs and his temptations of suicide. Mary J. Blige does backing vocals for the song, a nice touch. However, it’s still one of the album’s weaker songs.
Another memorable track of the album was “Marijuana” — sure to become the new stoner anthem of late 2010. It’s definitely the third strongest song of Cudi’s new release.
God knows why “Erase Me” is the single of Cudi’s new album – it’s by far the worst song on the album and probably Cudi’s worst song ever. Working with Kanye West on this one, Cudi sounds as if he was trying to make a trashy, self-absorbed and uninspired pop song. I find it painful trying to listen to the entire song, it’s so terrible.
The rest of the album features some pretty impressive guest artists (Mary J. Blige, Kanye West, Cage, St. Vincent, Cha Tha Ripper, etc.) but is ultimately unimpressive compared to Cudi’s debut. A lot of the songs are, tragically, not memorable or interesting enough to want to listen to again. Like the first Man On The Moon, Cudi’s lyrics remained uniquely moving due to their emotional rawness – a quality that has always separated Cudi’s lyrics from other rappers’. In general, however, Cudi seemed relatively uninspired on his sophomore effort whereas his debut was a shining example of artistic inspiration.
Although Man On The Moon II: The Legend Of Mr. Rager is not Cudi’s best, it’s too bad that he’s not coming to Seattle soon. It would be an interesting album to see performed live. Cudi’s sophomore release saw him venture into darker, quieter territory than ever before – not exactly what I had hoped for or anticipated. I hope Cudi gets the message from his fans that next time around, he should probably try smoking less weed, transcending the Man On The Moon series and making a more coherent album if he desires continued success.