Whilst Cudi’s lyrics don’t hold up to close inspection, his production and soundscapes certainly do. He tells you about his misery ad nauseam, but never in a way that’s particularly poetic or interesting, so it just becomes a wash of sadness, and the listener can never feel like they’re getting to know the man underneath it. He’ll say something like “since a kid, I’ve been haunted by visions of death”, but that’s as deep as he’ll go.
He has always rapped about depression and anxiety, which are obviously very worthy and personal subjects, but he rarely has much to say about them that’s at all creative. Passion, Pain & Demon Slayin’ suffers that same curse, with it’s 90-plus minute length requiring a thematic and lyrical depth Cudi just doesn’t have. Man on the Moon: The End of Day is a solid record, but it and all his releases that followed have been plagued by overly ambitious runtimes and poor lyricism. Of course, that does come with the main caveat that old-style Kid Cudi is a fairly flawed musician. He’s generally a reclusive artist, more likely to release an amateurish rock album like Speedin’ Bullet 2 Heaven than the melodic hip-hop he’s actually good at, which is what makes his new album, Passion, Pain & Demon Slayin’ so refreshing: it sounds like Cudi is finally back to being himself. However, it’d be a surprise if Cudi ever featured on a Drake song. 808’s & Heartbreak wouldn’t exist without him, and by extension, neither would Drake and the entire R&B/rap crossover genre that exists today. For an artist that has been so hugely influential, Kid Cudi has always seemed to exist somewhat outside of the hip-hop scene.
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