Written by: David Williams
Score 7.4/10
2022 is the apex of Scott Mescudi’s 14-year career. He has been on a preverbal hot streak with every project music and cinemated related this year. Having re-released his debut mixtape A Kid Named Cudi onto streaming services, his To The Moon Tour is his highest-selling live show, selling out arenas across the country. He is also acting/producing in critically acclaimed horror movies X and Pearl, creating a career resurgence that doesn’t come frequently. In 2015, at his lowest personal/professional moment, his grunge rock album Speedin’ Bullet 2 Heaven sold a paltry 19,000 copies in its first week. Fast forward to 2020, his latest offering, the heavily anticipated trilogy Man on the Moon III, scored over 144,000 first-week sales.
Cudi’s perseverance to scratch and claw his way out of the darkness like a man trapped in a cave has led him to this moment. His internal work on himself for self-improvement and essentially working his ass off in his career has led to where you see him now; everywhere. Whether it’s anchoring McDonald’s, Levi’s, and Bose ads, laughing it up with late-night host Jimmy Fallon, or facing magazines with solely a sock, Kid Cudi has never been more omnipresent. From being a longtime outsider in the music industry, Cudi now shines in the center of the mainstream.
Seemingly tired of the same album rollout, Mescudi, the man, wanted to merge with Cudi, the artist, to form one singularity piece of art, thus creating the love-driven medium Entergalactic. Making a show or movie paired with an album is something we only have seen from the musical icon Prince. Still, in Cudi’s case, he chose to go the animation route which stunningly blends 2D and 3D paying homage to Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. The music is his driving force to push the narrative of the story he created for the Netflix show. In fact, Cudi recommends watching the show before listening to the record for a better understanding of the record’s meaning.
The intro “Entergalactic Theme” sets the tone as you would expect any Kid Cudi project, with dark, brooding synths that reintroduce the listener to Mescudi’s cosmos. In the opening lyrics of “New Mode,” he gently sings, “Finally got my head right, it’s a new me/It’s like I got heaven in my sights now, beauty I see.” Finally, it seems he has found inner peace and is ready to find a partner to build a life together.
Cudi sings from a place of hopefulness, not hopelessness, when it comes to love in his first R&B album. However, he comes from a vulnerability in his demeanor, wanting a partner to transcend to new heights together. If he was on F Boy Island, Cudi would identify as a nice guy, with lyrics like “You’re the sweetest melody/Thank God I found you.”
Photo Credit: Jason Goldwatch
Some highlights on the album are the three rap-centric tracks on Entergalactic, with the stand out amongst them being the vintage Man on the Moon II sounding “Can’t Believe It.” Cudi harkens back to 2010 with his flow, rapping with the same swagger and bravado he had on “Mojo So Dope.” His debut single, “Do What I Want,” is a raging anthem for going out partying all night with friends tearing the city up to shreds and leaving little to nothing for the next day. “Livin’ My Truth” is an original 2018 freestyle from the Kids See Ghosts sessions. The song celebrates his mental state with lyrics like “Hands high, feelin’ right, I’m rosy golden,” while also tapping into his Mr. Rager, no-one-can-touch-me persona.
The kinetic energy between Kid Cudi and Ty Dolla $ign is electric, generating the best love songs on the record. “Willing To Trust” is Cudi and Dolla $ign crooning about the longing of finally being ready to be with a partner over body exiting otherworldly layered synths. “Can’t Shake Her” is a catchy melodic song over slick production. The duo’s delivery is smooth, creating an organic outer space vibe. Despite the pair only having collaborated on a handful of songs, they already have great chemistry, reminiscent of the 90s R&B brothers K-Ci and Jojo. The bond between the two bleeds over into the Netflix show as well. Dolla $ign has a scene-stealing charismatic performance playing best friends to Jabari, played by Mescudi.
The album doesn’t close out on the highest of notes, as the last 4 songs don’t measure up to the rest of the record. “She’s Lookin’ For Me” has a soundtrack quality that plays during the closing credits of a Rom-Com starring Jen Aniston and Jason Segal. “My Drug” and “Somewhere to Fly” don’t resonate with much enthusiasm upon listening. The lyrics in both songs move the show’s plot forward, but nothing else of any significance happens in the music. The pieces work congruently with the show because that’s what they were designed to do, but taken at face value, these songs don’t measure up to Cudi’s back catalog.
All in all, Scott Mescudi continues to push the envelope on what a traditional album cycle appears to be for artists. He constantly is on the front lines of innovation and originality in music. Entergalactic is Cudi’s most ambitious piece of work yet, creating a dazzling visual spectacle for Netflix with an R&B soundtrack that is his most content work to date.