One should not take pride in the hypercriticism of any piece of art, however a line must be drawn somewhere. Kid Cudi’s Man on the Moon Trilogy was completed by the release of Man on the Moon 3  on December 11th of 2020. The first two thirds of this trilogy were utterly beautiful. The collections of tracks that made up both of these projects rightfully redefined the limits of hip hop as it is today. Both albums combined the sounds and emotions of early hip hop and alternative rock though unique production, eloquent lyrics, and surprising vocals. These albums shook the world of hip hop and redefined that term as a whole. The legacy of Cudi’s sound would go on to inspire an entire new generation of creative hip hop artists.

“This album was pretty ugly. I am not sure what happened to his original sound. I think he got scared. This album didn’t tickle my ears in the slightest, surely nowhere near the level of stimulation of his previous work,” says my little brother Robbie Olson, who fancies himself fashioned in the hip hop biome.

Given the already present legacy of the trilogy, the excitement regarding the finale’s release was astronomical. As was my disappointment with the product. This album did NOT replicate any of the feels from the first two. This album was NOT a high caliber continuation of the multi-genre feel that the first two generated. This project as a whole created a low quality trap feel that was popular around 2017, audible in productions similar to those of The Migos. This is not consistent with the reputation of creativity and individualism that Cudi has sculpted throughout his career. This medley of normalities took a catastrophic chomp out of his once untouchable psyche. Anyone who praises this album has been indoctrinated by the inceptive strength of “New Music Bias.” 

The album retains a small pouch of decent sounding songs, but anything memorable is few and far between. 

For those seeking quantitative clarity, I would score this album a weak 4.7 out of 10.