Kid Cudi in the ‘Pursuit of Happiness’

I worry about Kid Cudi.

Being a native of Cleveland, I care about my own, including Cudi. I really enjoyed his album “Man on the Moon: End of the Day,” but every time I listen to it I can’t help but feel a bit uneasy.

By the second track on the album, “Soundtrack 2 My Life,” Cudi gives you the catalyst of the story — he “has some issues that nobody can see.”

When I first listened to the song, I remember being taken aback at such a blunt lyric being the focus point of only the second track on a debut album. Cudi was willing to take me on his inner journey to happiness. I was excited for the rest of the album, and I felt honored.

On “My World,” he raps about all the things rappers aren’t supposed to mention: low self-esteem, not having luck with the girls and not having a crew. He is okay with these issues because he knows that eventually he will be on top.

I was proud of Cudi for having such a great outlook, but then I realized he had a back up plan: getting high. For most of the album it’s an ongoing cycle. Cudi has inner problems, he tries to rise above them with a positive attitude, he still feels sad, he gets high and everything is great. This depressing cycle is something D.A.R.E. would not promote.

Most of the album is essentially a story of a man failing at achieving happiness within himself, so he numbs himself with drugs.

The second half of the album is full of upbeat empowering songs about Cudi finding his stride and having a good time; however, when we look at these songs in the context of the album, we see that these happy songs have depressing connotations.

In the empowering anthem “CuDi Zone,” we hear him proclaim in the chorus that when he’s in the zone, he’s feeling all right. At a closer listen, we see that what he’s actually saying is “When I zone, I’m feeling all right.” This empowering anthem is about getting high enough that your problems don’t matter, “Im’a zone out till I lose feeling.”

“Enter Galactic (Love Connection Part I)” is a groovy song on its own. The chorus is hyped and the verses feel like a disco-soul dance miracle, but after hearing 20 minutes of Kid Cudi rap about how he feels alone and unhappy, you can’t enjoy this funky song.

Instead you feel like a concerned friend. Hearing Kid Cudi rap about having a great time partying with a girl just makes you sad that he is using partying to mask these inner demons. You just want to give him a comforting hug and talk to him about his problems.

The last song, “Up Up & Away” is super fun, and you feel like the Kid is going to be all right. He’ll be “up up and away, because in the end they’ll judge me anyway, so whatever.”

He finally got over his self-consciousness, and he’s okay with being himself. But wait, the song starts with him getting “so caught up in a bud.”
So even the content feeling Cudi feels at the end of the album is really just a result of him being too high to care about the problems he faces. So in the end nothing is solved.

Kid is still depressed when sober, but he knows this, so he just gets “hyer and hyer.”
Now I do not know Mr. Cudi personally, but in the interviews I’ve seen of him he seems to be a pretty confident and happy guy, a far step from the man described in the songs.

I’ve read that this album will be part of a trilogy of albums that will follow Cudi through his life so far, so perhaps in the next episode we will see him find his sober happiness that I’ve seen in interviews.

If not, though, I hope the music is at least as good and as intriguing as this one.