Analysis essay

Julian Miller

Septemeber 10, 2013

Mr. Dilbeck

Composition I

Analysis essay

            In 2009, recording artist Scott Ramon Seguro Mescudi (A.K.A) Kid Cudi released his debut album “Man on the Moon: The End of Day” which brought a new style and influence to modern hip hop culture. The 15 track album hosted a gloomy but meaningful concept that seamlessly shifts from topics like loneliness, depression, drugs and dreams to more uplifting topics such as happiness, family, achieving ambitions and loving life. The sing song style of the album helps make it memorable and gives it an airy, enchanting feeling that makes the listener dive deep into flawless synthesis of beats and lyrics. Kid Cudi poured himself and his message into this album so smoothly and descriptively that even apathetic listeners can pick up on it easily, but how does he deliver his message and emotions so vividly?

            In “Man on the Moon: The End of Day”, Mescudi initially divulges into his past experiences with family and drugs and displays his negative emotions and views on these topics as well as his depressed view of the world. Mescudi displays his inner thoughts rhythmically to give the listener a taste of his world

“I’m super paranoid, like a 6th sense

Since my father died, I ain't been right since
And I tried to piece the puzzle of the universe
Split an eighth of shrooms just so I could see the universe”(Mescudi, 2009).

  But why does he put himself out so unflinching and honestly? Especially in a genre where the average listener would say such a topic is sign of weakness. Never been shy to express himself even since his very first mixtape (A Kid Named Cudi), Mescudi has always been known for his relatable life experiences and how his messages can help guide people into a better mind state and better outlook on life. The more depressive songs on the album like Solo Dolo or My World seem to draw attention and create a commonality of feelings between the listener and the artist, and as the music goes on the listener continues to make connections and begins to empathize. Mescudi then swiftly switches the tempo and feeling of the album throughout the entire piece until it evolves into a more positive and inspiring tone. Mescudi is effective in his message but a message is useless without an audience to interpret it, so what kind of audience does Mescudi appeal to? What kind of people does his music affect the deepest?

            Being primarily in the hip hop genre, Mescudi’s audience tends to be around the teenage years 13-18 and on to the mid 20’s, these ages tend some of the most confusing times in a persons life. The possible reason why Mescudi’s message is so powerful is because he gives life tips to young people who are currently seeking any kind empathy, so Mescudi reaches out through his music. To his credit, Mescudi is often referred to as the “The Big Brother” rapper something Cudi is proud of and gladly provokes as seen in his intro to REVOFEV:

“Yeah, welcome, welcome you, hey
I'm your big brother

What do I have to say to the kids?” (Mescudi, 2010)

 What he says to the kids involves every range of emotion and thought from anger to loneliness to sadness, to happiness, love, confusion etc; all of these feelings are common blights of the teenage mind But almost any artist from any genre can practice such techniques, so what makes Man on the Moon: The End of Day so different?

            Man on the Moon: The End of Day’s musical style was a new kind of approach that only Kid Cudi and Kayne West who mentored Cudi had practiced, it was a recipe of theme centered, rhymic verses with a smooth flow accompanied by extremely memorable hooks that often summarized the topic or concept of the song these hooks were also a mixture of rapping and singing which gave the style its nickname “sing song rap”. Mescudi created this style previously on his mixtape but on the album he perfected the art and delivery thanks to Kayne West’s mentorship, examples of the style in its best form are on the songs: Soundtrack to my Life, Up,Up Away, Pursuit of Happiness and Cudi zone. The style isn’t the only thing unique about the album; Mescudi took after his Mentor and added a story element to the album which puts another layer of depth in it as the narrated story seems to segregate the tone of the music. This segregation is enabled by the tale that is told about a hero who transcends from a dreamlike paradise to a realm of nightmares and fears and then to a sanctum of inner peace and calm. The style and the storytelling factor is especially effective when trying to invoke connections to the listener as the hooks often hit you and makes you want sing along with the song, after the song is over you are again hit with the intriguing tale of the Man on the Moon (the hero within the story) which hints that tone is about to change. The songs are especially infectious and memorable and often stick to you as well as the meanings of them making an effective effort in reaching out to listeners.   

Making music is a hard and tiring process in any genre but making music that does more than entertain the listener, but actually enlightens and uplifts them can be a unrelentingly difficult  procedure that some cannot simply complete. But when the process is done right, the fans and artist bond and enable an invisible connection to each other, they are connected by the words that came from the artists mind and landed in fans heart. The positive music in the album encourages many young people to be accepting and happy with whom they are, while the smooth, darker melodies calm and speak to the soul of the listeners. Kid Cudi’s Man on the Moon: The End of Day album was a successful approach on how to reach out to people through seamless lyrics and beats, so successful that many fans of hip hop and hip hop critics alike refer to the album as a classic and will live past the current decade of its birth. Man on the Moon’s arsenal of methods to appeal to the listener seems to be the key in how the message is so powerful and how even apathetic listeners can become die hard fans.

(Mescudi,Scott. "Man on the Moon": The End of Day, Universal Motown Records, 2009, CD)

To listen: http://musicmp3.ru/artist_kid-cudi__album_man-on-the-moon-the-end-of-day.html#.Uk20RhDRJFs

Narrative Essay

Julian miller

Composition I

Mr. Dilbeck

Narrative Essay

This experience taught me to cherish every moment you have with someone you love and never take them for granted, as the unexpected seems to always happen to the ones you care most about. It started off like any regular Sunday 6 years ago, I was sitting at the Westerville library waiting to start my weekly visit where I spend 4 hours with my father Raphael. When I finally spotted my dad’s jeep and strolled my way to the vehicle and pulled the handle…of course, locked. I looked inside the car and gestured for him to open the door and he smirks at me…..”C’mon dad, let’s not do this.” I mumble, he chuckles and unlocks the door. I open the door, hop onto the soft seat and notice that there were two fishing poles in the back. With a smirk I state, “So we going fishing again? We haven’t done this in like years” I said.

“Yea I know, I’ve missed fishing with u too Julian, ha--remember last time you almost fell off that hill into the lake hahahaha.

I retort, “Ha-ha it wouldn’t be so funny if I really did”.

He smirks and responds, “Your right, then I woulda got wet saving you hahahahah…you ready to get going then?”

I shook my head and laughed, “Whatever, yea lets go”. Raphael starts the car and drives off towards the lake. I stared out the window anticipating the experience, as fishing with my father was special thing we used to do all the time but recently had stopped due to family issues. When we had finally arrived at the lake, we pulled our chairs and equipment out of the car and carried them over to the soft dirt spot that overlooked the soon to be fished lake. The lingering smell of the lake brought back vivid memories of previous trips and gave me a warm nostalgic feeling. We unfolded our blue and green chairs and cracked open our big, smelly fishing kit. Raphael and I grabbed some bobbers, weights, and some purple fake worms that had hooks in them. We attached the items onto the pole and casted our first lines. I look over to my father and smirk, “10 bucks says I catch something on my first cast”

“HA! Yea right, I’m the only one who can do that. You can barely catch one at all” Raphael exclaims.

 “PLEASE! I seem to remember you not catching anything while I would catch like 5 fish then you’d get pissed about it”

“Yea well, that isn’t happening today” Raphael claims, he then casts his line out and proceeds to sit in his chair next me. We both realized that neither of us were going to be very lucky at all that day. He would cast his line as I would cast mine daring each other to catch something but to no avail. We passed the time by catching up and making small talk, something I had missed doing with my father and something I had enjoyed getting to do again. We spent an hour just talking and fishing and finally I got a tug on my line.

“Dad…I think I got a tug” I said, he looks over and focuses on my bobber, the fish bites again which causes us to notice the bobber pull down and twirl slightly. I stand up and reel in my line a little bit, the line has tension so I jerk my pole and hook the fish.

“Good job! Now reel that sucker in” Raphael exclaims, I start reeling and tugging on the tense line as excitement runs through me. I can see the line steering through the sun glistened water as the fish fights against me. The murky, dark blue water contained a soggy, molded tree trunk that was right in the lane of my line. My father warned, “Avoid that tree or it’ll break your line and you won’t be catching anything” I pull the line away from the trunk but I feel an even stronger tension on my line and knew something was wrong.  As sudden as the fish came, the fish was gone, the line snapped on an underwater branch and the tension from my line disappeared.

“Of course, just my luck” I say sullenly, I reel the rest of my line in and take a seat in my chair to fix it. My father looks down on me and shakes his head “well you almost had him” he murmurs. He sits next to me and assists me in fixing my red and black pole. We spent the last 3 hours after that just talking and casting out lines, though neither of us caught anything that day but we enjoyed ourselves nonetheless. At 4:45 my father and I packed up our equipment and jumped into his truck, he started it and I felt the rumble of the engine; he put the car in gear and drove off towards the library. We spent the ride reminiscing on old memories of our family and my starting of the 7^th grade. When we arrived at the library and he parked the car and smiled at me “did u have a good time?” he questioned

“Of course I did! Today was awesome, I enjoyed myself” I exclaimed

Raphael smirked and said “well great, I’m glad I could spend time with you, you better go to your mother now or she’ll start worrying” I open the door and hop out of the car.

 “Ha I know trust me, hey ill see ya later dad” I said

“Bye Julian, I’ll see you next week” Raphael answers. I shut his door and start to walk off towards my mother’s car, I look back to watch him drive away and smile. Sadly, that would be the last time I would see him as he would pass away months later in a hospital. This memory is very precious to me as this was the last moment I had with my father and a great last memory it was.

i think this works