Is ‘Entergalactic’ the end of Kid Cudi as we know him?

Scott Mescudi, A.K.A. Kid Cudi has been working non-stop in 2022. This year alone, Cudi has re-released his breakthrough mixtape A Kid Named Cudi (2008) and also dropped Volume 1 of his Greatest Hits, whilst maintaining a steady feature run and embarking on his world tour. Adding to this year’s lengthy accolades is Entergalactic, a multi-media passion project straight from the mind of the singer-songwriter.

This has been roughly three years in the making, coming to fans as a Netflix miniseries, accompanied by the album that soundtracks the charming animated rom-com. Co-writing and starring in the show, Cudi manages to bring the music to life through the story of Jabari, a young comic book artist with a new job at a major publisher, Cosmic Comics. After moving into his beautiful new loft apartment in Manhattan, New York, he develops a crush on next-door neighbour Meadow, which begins a whirlwind romance that serves as the centrepiece for both the Netflix special and the themes of the album.

Unfortunately, the music doesn’t quite live up to its animated counterpart. On Entergalactic, I felt Cudi cut all of the flair that he brought to Passion, Pain and Demon Slayin’ (2016), Indicud (2013) and his other great LPs from that golden era of his career. It is understandable that artists often like to say that their upcoming project is their ‘best work yet’ to get more people talking about it, but Cudi has also been promoting this for years. Even in January, he described it as the “greatest piece of art” he’s ever made.

I wasn’t expecting him to top the first Man on the Moon album (in fact, I wasn’t expecting anything near the level of quality that he had in the early to mid-2010s). There are some clear standouts, such as the neo-psychedelic, alternative R&B duet ‘Willing To Trust’ with Ty Dolla $ign, or the second track ‘New Mode’, produced by Dot Da Genius. Even the lead single ‘Do What I Want’ became one of my favourite tracks, despite really disliking its poppy trap instrumental and somewhat lazy chorus when it was first released.

Songs like ‘My Drug’, ‘Can’t Shake Her’ and ‘Angel’ are just downright boring. Imagine if an AI were to create a computerised song from the accumulation of an artist’s catalogue – well, this is what you get here. The same humming synth fills the background of these tracks whilst Cudi’s autotuned vocals are equally as sleepy and uninteresting and could be mistaken for throwaways from any of his previous albums.

The feature list also leaves a lot to be desired: Ty Dolla $ign (twice), Don Toliver (twice), 2 Chainz and Steve Aoki. Features are not everything, however. An artist doesn’t need 10 plus features to make an album good – just look at J Cole’s 2014 Forest Hills Drive (2014) or Sampha’s Process (2017), two almost perfect records with not a single guest feature. For me though, this album could have done just fine without most of the features, aside from Ty on ‘Willing To Trust’ and Don Toliver on ‘Somewhere To Fly’.

Image Credits: @tydollasign on Instagram

Since the album’s release, Cudi sat down for an interview with Zane Lowe, during which he expressed his desire to “draw a line under Kid Cudi”. So, what does that mean? He went on to say that he wants to “write more TV shows, write more movies, produce more.” The idea of creating an album and touring it just isn’t of interest to him anymore. So, if this is to be his last album ever (which I don’t believe it will be) then I can’t help but feel that it would be a sour end to a phenomenal artist’s career. Entergalactic (the album) sadly could’ve been much, much better. This is quite disappointing since the miniseries, despite some quite terrible transitions between scenes, is brilliantly immersive, from the vibrant colours and outfits to the enthralling plot.

You can listen to Entergalactic on all streaming platforms and find the Netflix special here.