About.com Rating

Buy Direct

?uestlove once told me a funny story about Jay-Z's first encounter with Game Theory. After listening to the initial version of the album, Jay joked that it was depressing and said, "Would someone get Tariq [Black Thought] a tissue." Good thing Kid Cudi isn't signed to Roc Nation, because Man on the Moon II: The Legend of Mr. Rager would drive Jay-Z suicidal.

To call Man on the Moon II a depressing album would be an understatement.

It chronicles the troubles of a man mired in a slough of emotional turmoil. Surrounded by friends, he wallows in desolation. Music gives him chart presence, yet he feels like a ghost.

It's not a concept album a laMan on the Moon, but strong themes run rampant. For one, there's his current obsession with death. He's also interested in living to the fullest while he can still inhale it, as "Wild'n Cuz I'm Young" suggests. The Cage-assisted "Maniac" is frigid like a meat locker. Songs about spiritual beliefs and palpable solitude course through the album.

The most striking quality of Man on the Moon 2, though, is its cohesiveness. Kid Cudi makes albums that are greater than the sum of their parts. Take any song out of this album and it might sound like a half-baked idea. But within the complete body of work, they fit perfectly together like Jenga.

The Bottom Line

Throughout, Cudi's voice drifts in and out of the music, allowing the spacey pianos and tribal drums to do the talking instead. His guests are almost an afterthought.

Mary J. Blige, for instance, is relegated to a background vocalist on "Don't Play This Song." When Cudi isn't standing beside the music, his obsession with melody spurs the campfire playfulness of "All Along," in which he sings: "I'm messy at home/I ate a lot of junk food."

Excesses rear their heads occasionally. Cudi's insistence on drawing out every melody down to the last puff on "Maniac" gets overbearing. Besides, his awkward verse structure makes the album tedious to digest. Those missteps aside, the harrowing tales on Man on the Moon II resonate like a bong hit.

You might be tempted to view Cudi's style as an emo-rap gimmick if he didn't have a well documented coke problem. When he sings about pain and addiction he's as convincing as Amy Winehouse was when she said "No, no, no" to "Rehab." That's an important point because cynicism is so fashionable nowadays that we tend to dismiss distressed celebrities as attention whores. Cudi starts off justifying addiction, but by the end of the album, he doesn't seem entirely oblivious to his reality. Here's hoping that Mr. Solo Dolo conquers those demons and makes third time the charm.
Best Songs:

• "Don't Play This Song"
• "My Mojo So Dope"
• "REVOFEV"
• "The End"

Release Date: November 9, 2010
Buy Direct