Kid Cudi had a super weird 2015 I think.
Super cool from where I’m sitting, but also super weird.
I got into Kid Cudi pretty much right out of the gate, I am not the biggest hip-hop fan by any stretch of the imagination, but I do go through my phases. I was paying a little bit of attention to the “scene” when 2008’s “A Kid Named Cudi” mix-tape
was released and was pretty much sold on Cudi from the get go.
His first full length “Man on the Moon: The end of Day” sealed the deal and was probably one of the albums I listened to the most back in 2009. Then he followed it up with the also very, very good “Man on the Moon II: The Legend of Mr. Rager”. Cudi existed in my favorite space in hip hop, that indie rapper who incorporates less than traditional beats and whose lyrics contain more “realness” than you usually see in hip hop. Both albums contain plenty of references to coping with depression and night terrors and the like.
They were also both million sellers.
Now, when you’ve set out the create a trilogy of concept albums and the first two releases are only about a year apart and they’re both massively successful, you’ve got to think that an enormous amount of pressure builds for the artist.
Well, it’s been 5/1/2 years and there’s still no visible signs of a Man on the Moon III. But that doesn’t mean he hasn’t been busy, less commercially successful sure, but not less busy.
He formed a rock band (WZRD), released “Indicud” (which was way more upbeat than the MOTM series) and “Satellite Flight: The Journey to the Mother Moon” (which was cool, but again, much less of a complete experience than his MOTM discs) and then we got to 2015.
What did he do in 2015? Well, you’ve released 2 parts of your trilogy, formed a rock band, released a rock album, then dropped 2 more albums (though technically Satellite Flight is an EP). You would think the obvious answer would be “released MOTM3” right? Wrong.
“Co-star on a comedy show and release a grunge-rock album” is the actual answer. ↓ Read the rest of this entry…