Kid Cudi Takes Us On a Wild Space Ride

Kid Cudi

In the 17th Century. French poet Cyrano de Bergerac regaled us with a poem about traveling through the ether to the moon.  In 2014, rapper Kid Cudi did the same on his fourth studio album, "Satellite Flight: The Journey to Mother Moon".

Previous to this, I had not really been exposed to Kid Cudi, beyond his hit single, "Day 'N Nite", which I gave a lot of play when I was deejaying on the fair circuit in 2009 and 2010.  I decided to check out this album, and it is definitely one of the most unconventional hip hop albums I have ever heard.

The first thing I noticed is that - for a hip hop record - there is very little percussion here, no sick beats.  There are tripped out synthesizers and samples.  Indeed, this collection of songs is less rap as it is ambient or trance.  It reminds me more of an album by The Orb.  The songs melt from one into another, and most of the selections are instrumental.  It is like a light-speed acid trip through space.

But that is a good thing.  It is artists like Kid Cudi - and his mentor, Kanye West (love him, or hate him) - that show enough creativity to expand the genre into something beyond pop music, into art.

Songs of note are "Satellite Flight", the sweetly erotic "Balmain Jeans", and the Cosmos-like "Too Bad I Have To Destroy You".  But my favorites are the spacey instrumentals like "Copernicus Landing" and "Return of the Moon Man".  It makes me wonder if we will eventually see Kid Cudi stop throwing down rhymes and writing  movie scores.

Definitely check out this album.  But don't except it to make you throw your hands up in the air like you just don't care.  Most likely it will out you in the mood for a bong in a place to chill out while you take a wild ride into space.