What's poppin yall; Man on The Moon is a classic album, you have many people that will
disagree or even debate this but a lot of people believe this to be true.
However, some people outright say that it was overrated even though they may agree that
man on the moon was the best kid cudi album.
We're going to analyze the album and confirm just why it is a classic and the many reasons
it has supporting it.
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The dramatic structure is how most plays or films are historically modeled after.
It usually consists of five parts or acts; the exposition, the rising action, the climax,
the falling action, and the denoument or the conclusion.
Today we're going to be looking at it from the lens and analysis of Gustav Freytag, a
German writer who got fame from his 1855 novel; Debit and Credit.
Man On The Moon was split into 5 acts; in what I believe was to intentionally model
it after a play, in this case being the play of Cudi's life.
Each Act had it's own separate name and intentionally led you through the entire album
as if you were experiencing an auditory play.
The Exposition or Act I; was called The End Of Day.
This is where the character is usually introduced and you learn about where they came from and
how they grew up through either narration or the character's own thoughts.
We get both of these in the first act beginning with the song In My Dreams; Cudi is welcoming
us into his dreams, his own world and then Common narrates a beautiful introduction of
the man on the moon.
Soundtrack 2 My Life follows where Cudi begins to give us details on how he grew up; Being
from Cleveland and now hanging with Brooklyn boys, his mother struggling to get him gifts
for Christmas, 2 older brothers, and his struggle with depression.
He reveals he has a drug habit, mentioning coke, his interest in settling down with a
woman, and his love for weed.
Then comes the closing of act one; with Simple As.
Where he mentions that he wants to stop hate and spread positivity while also not being
corny to the younger audience.
And to close out the first act and take us to the second one; Common steps in, preparing
us that while the dream has been nice thus far he will be thrown into a dark place very
soon.
The Rising Action or Act II; was called Rise of The Night Terrors.
This is where the build up begins for the climax, it is usually where the character
faces adversity or some sort of problem that they need to overcome in the story and it
starts off with Solo Dolo.
Where the first verse already alludes to Cudi being or scared of going insane; and people
always think he does wrong when his actions are intended to be good.
Then he talks to the listener asking them questions that may also be directed at his
own self.
In Heart of A Lion he's engaging in battle; the first and second verse start off with
"please save a kid that needs some help" and ending them with "I'll see you in
hell" but by the third verse he's overcome this and starts it off with "I'm just
a kid who needs no help" and ends it with "No, I'll never let you drag me down to
hell".
He's fought and overcome the fear he had in the first two verses.
My world and the ending of Act II; Cudi talks about his journey, from Cleveland to New York
and planning his take over.
He's in the shadows and biding his time unnoticed, but he's working and the world
will be his in due time.
The Climax or Act III; was called Taking a Trip.
This is usually the turning point; where everything changes for our character, it's usually
the opposite of what was presented to us earlier.
If the character was winning they start to lose and if they were losing they start to
win.
It starts off with Day N' Nite the hit single; a very sad song written for his dead uncle
that was the one who let him live with him when he first came to New York; but he eventually
kicked him out and they were upset at each other when he died.
This is still gloomy; cudi is the lonely stoner that when the sun goes down is just smoking
and writing music, surrounded by loneliness and darkness.
Sky Might Fall is right before the switch
and in the song you could interpret it as either The Sky Might Fall or This Guy Might
Fall; it's in the darkest moment but it's hopeful, and it tells you that there's still
a possibility, a light at the end of the tunnel.
That hope that we've been searching for is reached on Enter Galactic; with both a
change in production and energy, in what is a song likely talking to his girl exploring
galactic with him through some mushrooms or other psychedelic.
We have Common come back and transition us into the next act; letting us now that Cudi
becomes trapped in this world he just entered.
The Falling Action or Act IV: was called Stuck.
This is where we go through a process in which we find out who wins the conflict; in this
albums case it is Cudi vs his dreams or nightmares.
It starts off with Alive.
Where cudi is turning into a stronger version of himself that is definitely a werewolf;
he comes alive in the moonlight, the scent, and he's on the prowl to feast on a young
fine woman.
But not just to satisfy a physical desire but an emotional desire to save him from his
soul and the curse which is likely his father dying.
Cudi Zone is next, another positive and uplifting song, being high with some of the best rapping
on this entire album.
We get cudi's feel good coos on the hook and he's more confident, stronger, and doesn't
care what people think as opposed to the more insecure lyrics in the previous acts.
Make Her Say is another positive song; the entire song is about getting some top, there
isn't much more to say other than the fact that Kanye killed this verse.
And the ending of Act IV; one of Cudi's greatest songs Pursuit of Happiness.
The music video for this gives even better context to the songs lyrics; I'm going to
quote myself here from a video I did that will be in the cards, you should watch it
it's about travis scott and kid cudi.
Pursuit of Happiness is supposed to be a nightmare still, this whole story is a dream; cudi is
surrounded in an environment of people that SEEM to be enjoying themselves or when he
sings the hook; that while this lifestyle may seem great from the outside and he's
temporarily happy while he's on the drugs and alcohol, he always comes down after it
fades and leaves him searching again.
The irony in this song and music video is so beautiful because if you were around when
this song was big everyone played it like a feel good song dancing and were having a
great time to it kind of like exactly what you see in the music video but it's really
a sad song.
The Denoument, Conclusion, or Act V: was called A New Beginning.
This is where all the problems are solved and the viewer or listener in this case gets
to breathe a sigh of relief that all the action is finally over.
Hyyerr is an old school uplifting song; mostly about smoking but it starts off saying it's
a Sunday Morning and I interpreted that as the dream or nightmare being over; he's
finally woken up.
And the last track; one of my favorites, Up Up & Away.
Again it starts with the Sun coming up and he's waking and baking but most importantly;
all those thoughts he had throughout his nightmares are gone.
He doesn't care about trying to please anyone, he knows they're going to judge no matter
what he does.
It all comes full circle; he was having melancholy memories in the beginning of his mother not
being able to afford Christmas gifts but still getting them and now he can take care of her
and return the favor ten fold.
Common comes back in again with a beat switch to something anticipating danger
and lets us know that this isn't over, he's defeated the nightmares, for now but there
is a new challenge looming.
The entire structure of this album was so well thought out and every lyric and song
was placed in the right position.
This album is a classic because of it's influence, originality, turning the tides
of hip hop, but most importantly it was an auditory movie.
Each of the songs can be enjoyed as their own separate entity but when you put them
all together in the right order, you get a beautiful film, one that many of us could
relate to when this released, it wasn't only Cudi's story, but ours too.
Please give this video a like if you enjoyed it and comment down below if you want me to
do another video like this on if Man On The Moon II was a classic.
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