- Critic score
- Publication
- By date
-
This first official release is a soul searcher and may require more patience than your everyday debut. Still, the chilly, complicated Man on the Moon perfects the futuristic bleak-beat hip-hop Kanye purposed a year earlier, and rewards the listener with every tripped-out return.
-
Kid Cudi’s take on hip-hop hedonism has as its purpose the escape from one’s own fears and neuroses. He escapes the creatures that haunt him at night by turning himself into a larger-than-life entity: the man on the stage, the man on the moon.
-
MojoWhat's so impressive about Man on the Moon, however, is that it's a complete vision, designed to be listened to as a whole. [Dec 2009, p. 92]
-
Q MagazineA refreshing listen. [Dec 2009, p.120]
-
Despite the fat here, that thick layer of open, intense self-loathing is a clever way of unifying Man On The Moon as pure mood piece, a stream-of-consciousness pop voyage that’s more Phil Collins than rap.
-
Cudi turns out to be that rarest of rap phenomena: a hyped upstart who really does represent a promising new phase in the genre's evolution.
-
It’s spacey, adventurous, and ridiculously intriguing if only because it’s so different.
-
If you want to know further why this album is a classic you'll have to check it out yourself, but know for a fact it's well worth your fifteen dollars.
-
The rapper's delivery is confident in a poetic and artful way, channeled through a theatrical set of songs.
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
-
Positive: 422 out of 454
-
Mixed: 11 out of 454
-
Negative: 21 out of 454
-
Apr 28, 2013
-
Jan 9, 2018An absolute classic. One of hip-hop's most important and pioneering albums of the modern era. Man on the Moon deserves all the praise in the world.
-
Feb 12, 2012