Many hip-hop fans can testify to what Kid Cudi meant to them in the late 2000s. There are many people who say that his music saved their lives. With how raw and vulnerable he would get about topics like grief and depression, he cultivated a deep, meaningful relationship with his audience. He also drew in a litany of stoners, entranced by his wild, hypnotic soundscapes and warm crooning. Cudi fans rarely enjoyed his music passively.
That deep devotion can be traced back to his debut album Man on the Moon: The End of Day, released on this day 17 years ago. With the success of “Day n Nite” and the attention on his work with Kanye West, Man on the Moon became one of the most anticipated records of the year. However, despite the many eyes on Kid Cudi, the album was born out of a deep sense of loneliness.
“I feel like I’m in a place all by myself. When I’m thinking a lot or even just moving around day to day, I feel a sense of isolation within myself. I feel like I’ve built barriers in order to stay sane,” Cudi explained to BlackBook in 2009. “I’ve always felt like that; when I was younger, I had to entertain myself a lot because my siblings were older. I’ve always been a by-myself type of dude. So even when there are people around, I just feel like I’m solo dolo.
Kid Cudi Releases His Classic Debut Album On This Day 17 Years Ago
Despite its cult classic status now, Man on The Moon received some pretty mixed reviews back in 2009. Jon Caramanica of The New York Times marveled at some of the album’s raw, emotional potency, but didn’t always love Cudi’s vocal performances.
“But that vitality, that punch, is all but missing from the rest of the album, with its star reduced to a gaseous nonentity. This album needs something solid,” Caramanica argued. “Not a Common, who delivers preposterous, artless voice-over narration throughout, or even a Kanye West. What it needs is a Kid Cudi.”
Pitchfork was extremely harsh toward the Cleveland crooner, rating it a 4.1 out of 10. There, writer Ian Cohen believed that the “flat warble that Auto-Tune was made to salvage” couldn’t save his songwriting. “It would be numbing enough on its own, but nearly every 30 seconds there’s some terrifyingly underwritten lyric to jolt you into sharp pangs of embarrassment.”
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