Hard times, they mould ya,
Into something way more colder,
Let the world see how you win,
No matter how you seem to them,
Fuck 'em!
7.8
Cudi's discovery and acceptance of his cold, high self on his journey
to hell, or to the the sun, or to the moon or wherever he's going.
The Concept
Yo, this is my life. I'm high all the time, been battling depression - even
had cause to slit my wrist in the past, I left G.O.O.D Music because I
got impatient of waiting for them to realize I've got mad flow and not just
good for hooks.
Okay yeah I still get high, but I've got it under control, I still get depressed,
but I'm too focused on getting mine to let it be a real problem, and I've got
mad flow, mad production skills, mad hooks, just listen.
This is who I am, and I've made my peace with the man in the mirror. Deal!
The Craft
Mr. Cudi sets it off on a spazzed out rock tip, trying to show all of us that
he's got powers by feeding us crazy beats with weird synths running back
and forth; a thing I'm in no position to critique except to say I liked it.
The Hip Hop arrives on the back end to document the Real in his story. And
while he is no master lyrical wordsmith the realness of what spits is enough to
pull the listener in for further, closer inspection. He does show he's got 'mad
flow' with his efforts on Burn Baby Burn, and Cold Blooded, plus he's got Kendrick
Lamar, Rza, King Chip and Too $hort to supplement technique, flow, hardness
and street cred.
Never is anything on this album below par, but it's also hard to find a lot on
this album that is absolutely top notch.
The Story
It starts of with Mr. Cudi high on one thing or another, feeling Unfuckwittable,
giving in to his urge to smoke on something, fantasizing from afar about his
dream girl who would never know about his feelings, doing some more drugs
and then getting confirmation of his long held, deeply felt knowledge that he's
invincible, immortal.
As the high wears off, he replaces it with his music, to hell with everybody else,
he's going to do it all by himself he vows. And now things seem to be going well,
all these beautiful girls from everywhere are proof of that. Some more alcohol,
some more drugs. But his demons - depression, loneliness, insanity - always
return to haunt him and he has to spend long nights battling them. Hmmm.
He finally decides ridding himself of these demons aren't worth the time and
effort of the fight, accepts them as part of himself. Our flawed hero, at this
point feels ready to deal with the harshness of his neighbourhood, goes outside,
teams up with his real boys to get his just deserts off the streets. Feeling like
he's survived his demons, he finds himself ready, cold blooded enough, to lead
the legions of people who find themselves in a situation similar to his, to victory.
He'll have a party at his house to test this theory, sure enough everybody comes,
and with their friends too. Mission accomplished. Score at the end of the night
probably with that girl he was fantasizing about, get on his space ship and fly away
to the moon.
The Resolution
It takes too much energy to kill his demons, so he's going to concentrate on
moderating the things his demons feed on, so that he can focus the rest of his
energies on making his worklife a huge success.
Sacrificing a lot of his personal life, for a successful professional life.
The Verdict.
A lot of good music, but nothing great.
You'll probably never tire of listening to it, but even if you do you'll never tire
of having it playing in the background.
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