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Kid Cudi is an interesting character.  In my eyes he's the combination of Kanye's charisma and personality with Outkast's eclectic persona, mixed together to a fine, smooth liquid, destroyed in a garbage disposal, and recreated into a skinny nigga who used to sport a mo

hawk.  He's part of this new generation of rappers more on the side of lyricism and complimenting the production rather than falling back on it.  Say what you want to say about XXL magazine and the yearly freshman class, but the 2010 edition had some true talent.  Blu released an album with Exile that a lot of people consider a classic.  Charles Hamilton releases a mixtape every two hours.  Asher Roth is the new great white hope.  Wale is a lyrical mastermind.  Kid Cudi is arguably (don't quote me) the best act of the ten.  He embodies one of the most important aspects of hip hop despite not being purely hip hop: innovation.

I know, Soulja Boy embodies innovation too... if you want to call it innovation.  But Kid Cudi brings something ENTIRELY new to the table.  Stoners are common and rappers that half sing are becoming more and more common, but combining both elements AND rapping about space shit is simply incredible.  Let's get this out of the way: Kid Cudi's album is great, as good as Only Built for Cuban Linx Part 2.  Yeah, I said it, and I didn't acknowledge it before because my listening experience wasn't as good as it should of been.  I've listened and re-listened to the album for days and now I can properly give it the review it d

eserves.  

Cudi starts off on a high note with the intro, In My Dreams, a somber little look into the mind of Kid Cudi (whose name eludes me right now) and a set up for the rest of the album.  At the end of the track one of the greatest rappers of all time (yes, I said it!) Common begins his album narration.  Yes, Man on the Moon: The End of Day is more than just an album: it's a concept album of the highest caliber.  It's divided into five "acts", each titled, and Lonnie Lynn, Jr. narrates the story thus far at the end of each act.  See, the album acts as a space age, psuedo-biography to the life of Scott Ramon Seguro Mescudi, beginning with the somber In My Dreams, ending that track with Commo

n's narration, and moving right along into Soundtrack 2 My Life, a heartfelt look into some of what Cudi goes through, with such lines as: 

I'm super paranoid like a sixth sense

Since my father died I ain't been right sense

And I try to piece together the puzzle of the universe

Split an eighth of shrooms just so I could see the universe'

Kid Cudi is human, albeit a constantly lifted human, but he goes through problems like the rest of us.  From his problems he goes into Simple As... and lays down some ideal situations.  This concludes Act 1: The End of Day, best described as an introduction and in-depth look into the mind of Kid Cudi, inside his dreams and weed-laced mindset.  Common drops a bit more knowledge (he needs to do a poetry album with his pop... and Papa Wu) and introduces us to the next Act: Rise of the Night Terrors.

With a name like that you expect some kind of scary situations, right?  In a sense.  Kid Cudi kicks off Act 2 with the hauntingly piercing Solo Dolo.  In my opinion (and this is one of my beefs with the album) this song is the first that he actually raps on.  He does a combination of rapping and singing for the most part, even on this song, but he actually raps in the latter part.  The song itself is a bit of self deprecation, self pity, but while you feel for the man you jump right into the track that gets him out of this slump, the inspiring Heart of a Lion (Kid Cudi's Theme Music) and describes how he, despite all the bullshit he's been through, still has the heart of a lion and pulls himself out of the crap.  The last song of the act is My World featuring Billy Craven.  Delving into the realm of the ideal world once again (much more explicitly

) Cudi spits fire once again (half rap, half singing fire mind you) and Common once again steps in to introduce the next Act: Taking a Trip.

So how appropriate is it that Day 'n' Nite is the first track of the new act?  The lonely stoner, as he called himself, is looking for something in this song, but that "something" eludes me.    Great track, a wonderful way to introduce himself to the world.   Sky Might Fall, one of my favorite tracks on the album, maintains the space theme of the album and acts a psuedo-inspiration for the listener, assuring the listener that even if the sky falls "remember you can fly".  Enter Galactic is, from my understanding, the track a lot of people aren't really feeling.  Granted, the song is the standard song for the ladies, but I don't find it as bad as others do.  It's a great addition to the space-age feel of the album.  Common drops in once again to narrate the album (I might insert his sections at the end of the review because they're incredible) and we come to my favorite (and possibly the worst) Act of the album: Stuck.

"Stuck" begins with Alive and Cudi Zone respectively.  Both tracks are well enough, but the further along you get into the album the more songs of space age status start to merge together.  They still sound ok

ay, but we come to my second major grievance with the album, the second single Make Her Say.  This is quite possibly my favorite Kid Cudi song ever, but it doesn't fit in with the rest of the album.  Kanye and Common (at his fucking nastiest) drop some deviant verses with the Lady Gaga (she's creepy to me... good creepy, but creepy...) sample in the backdrop.  I would have preferred that Cudi saved this track for his next album, but as it is this track, in my opinion, would have been a better bonus track.  This leads us into the latest single, Pursuit of Happiness.  I like this song (though I would have preferred Heart of a Lion or Sky Might Fall as his next single) and I really like the feel behind the track.  It's fun, inspiring, upbeat, and resumes the space age feel set by the rest of the album.  Perhaps that break with Make Her Say was intentional so the sounds wouldn't merge together so muc

h.  Anyway, we leave this song and go into a Common narration once again, going into the final Act: A New Beginning.

At only two tracks long, A New Beginning is a fitting end to a great album.  Cudi does a bit more pure rapping (I stopped caring so much about the half and half style in Act 3) with Hyyer and brings the album to a happy, almost full circle finish with Up Up and Away, where he finally wakes up, concluding the almost dreamlike sequence and bringing the great album to a beautiful close.  

This is the best alternative hip hop album to come out in a long, LONG time.  I said alternative because Raekwon is far from alter

native.  On a whole I put their albums on the same level, but in different ways.  Both have their flaws and both still manage to shine bright.  I consider this album, and in essence R

aekwon's latest, to the game Portal.  Ever play it?  It's a great game, nearly flawless.  Its short enough to not overstay its welcome and challenging enough to keep your interest.  The problem with it (if you want to call it a problem) is just around personal preference, just like virtually everything.  That's why Kid Cudi has crafted a certified near-classic with this LP.  I didn't give him the proper score before because I was unfairly comparing it to Raekwon's sequel (now HE knows how to make a sequel, unlike that other New York rapper *cough* Jay-Z *cough*).  Now I'm not.  Kid Cudi is a leader of the new school, and I can't wait for his next piece of work.

The DiZ TRUE score: 4.5 out of 5

As a little gift, this is one of the narrations from Common, the first one.  This is back to the roots of his poetry.  Makes me regret even more than he created Universal Mind Control.  Go to this link and read the last part.  This is Common at his best.