Make no mistake about it,
Man On The Moon: The End Of Day was a confident record. Through slick beats and huge mainstream appeal that resonated from the mass hit "Day N' Nite" and the fact that Kid Cudi's mixtapes were making huge splashes in the hip-hop community, a community that hasn't seen much evolution or sparks of originality in quite some time. Here comes this kid from Cleveland, destined to turn hip-hop on its side with inventiveness up to the eyes, something new for the scene to immerse itself into.
End Of Day was spacier, more creative, and more down right fun that nearly anything coming out of hip-hop the past few years, and I believe Kid Cudi knew this. Cudi spent so much time building himself up to something great that
End Of Day not only turned into a massive hit, but also brought Kid Cudi into a world of drugs and spiraling chaos that brought him zooming back down to Earth.
Enter
The Legend Of Mr. Rager, Kid Cudi's answer to the aftermath and ultimately his best work to date. The album is a reality check, where Cudi admits his faults and instead of fighting the urge to rebel and resent, he thankfully (and intelligently) rides along the wave of recovery, resulting in a proverbial cooldown. The music blatantly extracts from this period in his life, using soothing, therapeutic, chilled-out beats that take the place of
End Of Day's stylistic, shining aesthetic. It's refreshing to hear a musician using his own perils of fame to his advantage instead of wallowing in more troubles. Cudi seems less focused on the music this time around and more on himself and it allows his words to shine through much clearer. He's not the greatest lyricist in the world, but you
know what he's speaking is from his heart and of the truth about his own life and it comes off as authentic as Cudi's ever been. It's never more apparent than in "These Worries", his best song to date, as the song begins with the sound of someone snorting cocaine and implodes into a lonely adventure through a wonderfully catchy chorus of
"These worries are heavy / they rest on my shoulders / my body won't let me fall victim no more" guest sung by Mary J. Blige. The words stay lingering long after the last creek and crack fades away - this is Cudi at his rawest and truest.
While it certainly won't see the airwave time
The End Of Day saw, what we can take away from
The Legend Of Mr. Rager is much more gratifying and more precious. The relaxed vibe allows this Kid Cudi to show us who he really is, at his most vulnerable. Kid Cudi has turned his demons into inspiration which is something any aspiring artist should attempt. Come to think of it, isn't that what Cudi set out to do in the first place, before he blew up? To inspire?
