“You are now in the world I am ruling / Take a minute to adjust to the wondrous / Clusterfuck of fun and enchantment / I promise you some generation next shit / Speak for the silent who are left with / Parallel levels in a dark, dark place.”
With these opening lyrics, Kid Cudi (real name Scott Mescudi) lures you into the realm of his torment and introduces his second album, Man On The Moon II: The Legend Of Mr. Rager, a dark and twisted place marked by melancholy melodies and hazy electronic beats.
In the quintessential album opener, “Scott Mescudi vs. The World," an infectious alt-poppy hook by Cee Lo Green beckons you to follow Cudi while he takes you on his head-trip of a journey to new horizons within the hip-hop genre. By the final echoing reverb, you suddenly realize you're trapped in the eerily-enchanted and dazzlingly-dazed mind of The Cudder.
“REVOFEV” (short for Revolution of Evolution) keeps the album’s momentum going and its bemused tone flows with military drumming, the strings of Larry Gold and a wailing acid rock guitar, all backing Cudi’s sly vocal style as he mixes in just the right amount of droning “whoa-oh’s” to make one want to sing along.
Message wise, the lyrics take on a stoner tone and end up feeling empty of much meaning, besides questioning the listener’s allegiance to the evolution of hip-hop. However, the background music and beat are incredible and, perhaps, this is where the revolution is in the catchy, musical call-to-arms track — the song’s ability to evolve hip-hop by using the poetic rapping style of the genre while seamlessly combining it with orchestral strings, Pink Floyd-style guitar licks and thumping piano chords.
With each subsequent track, Cudi’s aim to evolve the musicality of the genre can be heard as he imbeds more rock guitar, somber strings, spaced out electro beats, woozy synths, and all kinds of dubby echo and reverb effects. The layered instrumentality accompanies his blunted-out rapping, which wafts in the sonic space of MOTMII like the trailing smoke off a cigarillo and reflects on Scott Mescudi’s creative rise versus the artistic boundaries of the hip-hop world and all the tempting vices that go along with it (cocaine, hoes and a steady flow of liquor), catering to his alter-ego, Mr. Rager.
The tipsy space-orbiting sound and fly chorus line of Cudi’s “Mr. Rager” make it a stand-out track, as he raps about reaching for “heaven” and “adventure” by any means necessary (assumedly through intoxicants), so he’ll never be harnessed by reality and spend “too long on the ground.”
“Mojo So Dope” is another tight track and is a prime example of Cudi’s bravado and unique vocal flow over an eerie back beat of “oh-oh-oh’s.” It is probably the most personally revealing song, lyrically, on MOTMII, with Cudi alluding to his father (whom he lost to cancer at a young age) and issues with his brother. Later in “Mojo” he raps, “Damn, you must understand, when I speak about in a song, it’s how I really am / Yea this is how I really think / You could see what I see, yes I really wink, yes I really drink / I really do rage, my demons out the cage about most of the day / Before I became the age to even rage / I was drownin’ my sorrows with some OE n-gga.”
With 17 genre-blending tracks in total, featuring artists such as Mary J. Blige, Kanye West and indie rapper Cage (on another standout “Maniac”), the album is a complex tour through the psyche of The Cudder broken into in five acts; therefore, it is one that requires repeated listening, but is never in danger of playing itself out.
After a few listens, there is already so much I like about the wizarding sonics of MOTMII. My two favorite tracks currently being the pop-rock tune about fame and relationships, “Erase Me,” (see video below) and the tribal, ready-for-the-club, beat heavy, “Wild’n Cuz I’m Young,” which focuses on the energy of the young to keep a buzz going. The two tracks are back to back on MOTMII and are totally opposite, but both display the funky and fresh artistic individuality featured on “dat new Cudi” (as some have been referring to the new album).
While it is not the creative stage-dive into commercial success of its predecessor, I don’t think it was intended to be. Instead, it is a subtle, drifting decent down the rabbit hole of Cudi’s creative consciousness. A consciousness full of haunting insights set against spellbinding beats, which are as bewitching to my ears as Halloween is to October 31. In a time where blending musical genres is music, Kid Cudi's MOTMII oozes with originality and proves Scott Mescudi is onto some generation next sonics within the hip-hop genre.
In a Complex interview regarding his latest release, Cudi said, “I don't make jams for the charts. My whole point is to make the music indescribable. I like baffling motherfuckers.” Ultimately, he achieved this with a hypnotizing hip-hop listening experience on MOTMII: The Legend of Mr. Rager. (Universal Motown, 2010).
4 stars
