R&B and rap icon Kid Cudi (“Tequila Shots”) recently released his eighth studio album “Entergalactic,” topping off an already busy year for the artist. Cudi released “The Boy Who Flew To The Moon (Vol. 1)” in July, which is the first greatest hits album by the musician, as well as “A Kid Named Cudi” on streaming services just a week later. Originally, “A Kid Named Cudi” was a fan favorite mixtape released in 2008, but was removed from streaming in 2014 due to copyright issues.

A  project was originally teased in 2019 in a tweet by Cudi, which contained the title “Entergalactic.” While originally the release date was set for 2020, the project was delayed numerous times, for reasons including Cudi’s want to focus on “Man On The Moon III: The Chosen.”

Even though Cudi has been considered to be a genre-bending artist since the late 2000s, the album sounds like it had a much different creative process than previous releases. For starters, “Entergalactic” seems to dive much more heavily than usual into his R&B side, with plenty of atmospheric sounds and melodic hooks. With a release of a more R&B sounding album, as expected, Cudi gets lost in his emotions throughout, and writes significantly about messages of love and relationships.

On the album, Cudi kept features minimal, with only five featured artists total, including Ty Dolla $ign (“Willing To Trust”), 2 Chainz (“Mask Up”) and Don Toliver (“Flocky Flocky”). As well as having few features, Cudi also executively produced the album himself. 

The album “Entergalactic” serves as the soundtrack to the Cudi’s brand new Netflix television special of the same name. The film is an animated music special for the album that has a 92 minute runtime. Along with the album, Cudi was also an executive producer for the film, highlighting the creativity that went into the project.

It is somewhat hard to compare this album to the most popular releases in Cudi’s discography, including the first two installments of the “Man On The Moon” trilogy. That, in part, speaks volumes to Cudi’s creative process. While each album has similarities to it, Cudi finds a way to keep his sound fresh, with different touches on each release. Sometimes Cudi leans more towards rap, and speaks about issues about mental health. Now it seems he is exploring a different route, which focuses deeper on the importance of his emotions, and how to approach these feelings that he has. 

While this may not be what every Cudi fan is looking for, there is a lot to love about the album. From the futuristic sounds, to the iconic “Cudi hums,” if you have been a fan of Kid Cudi since the beginning, there are numerous aspects that will sound nostalgic to his past music.

This album is a big win for Cudi following recent drama revolving around his relationship with Kanye West (“Donda”). In late July Cudi replaced West in Rolling Loud Miami, due to West dropping out of the lineup. Cudi’s set however, only lasted a few songs, due to fans of West booing and throwing bottles of water at Cudi on stage.

Photo via Netflix via YouTube