Kid Cudi’s eighth studio album, “Entergalactic,” recently released on Sept. 30, with 15 tracks and multiple collaborations with other artists focusing on a romance concept.
But what the 38-year-old rapper and songwriter also added to the release was a 90-minute adult animated series with “Black-ish” creator Kenya Barris on Netflix under the same name.
The series follows Jabari, voiced by Cudi himself, a street artist and recently hired comic book writer and illustrator who is moving into a new point of his life. Throughout the series he falls in love with Meadow, voiced by Jessica Williams, a photographer trying to make a name for herself and her work.
These two characters, along with the help of their respective friends, learn about what it means to love someone even in the midst of being busy with their personal lives and past relationships.
Throughout the series, songs from Cudi’s album are woven into the story, expressing emotions characters are experiencing in specific scenes the songs play in.
This mixture of active movement with characters along with the music really elevates the story to another level, making you feel the same energy that the characters are going through in the scenes.
One of the main issues brought up throughout the story is falling in love and maintaining that love and trust in one another.
By bringing up side issues such as getting over your ex and setting boundaries with them does bring up realistic situations one can face when trying to get into a relationship.
Even with this kind of issue, one of problems with the story was not really having a clear understanding of why Jabari broke up with his ex, Carmen, voiced by Laura Harrier.
While there are subtle clues about Carmen causing problems for Jabari, it doesn’t necessarily give the entire reason for the breakup, bringing down credibility for Jabari to just be friends with her and eventually cut all ties with her.
Although this hiccup made things a bit unclear background wise, it didn’t stop the good pacing of the show and relatability characters bring to the audience.
With music from the “Entergalactic” album being a big portion of the project, listening to the music on its own is different in terms of enjoyability.
There are songs in the album that do exude the same vibes as with hearing them from the show, as “Do What I Want” bringing you into a partying mood. The fast pace beat of the song along with lyrics such as “take a trip, a couple women, couple shrooms to the groove set it mood to the tune, rockstar in the news,” give audience the imagery of a night where anything can happen at any moment.
“Willing To Trust” also does a great job at wanting to bring that special someone close to you as the background vocals from Ty Dolla $ign grabs your attention and heightens emotions of romance into the mix.
But, throughout the pure listening of the album, there are songs that just don’t fit as stand alone singles.
While songs like “Angel” do bring up vibes of meeting a potential soulmate, such as the repeated lyrics “such an angel, in your halo” and “where’d you come from” imply, Cudi’s droning and low vocal execution doesn’t do a good job at making you feel those emotions.
It’s only until you see the context of the show that those emotions are able to surface.
Even with those small issues in both songs and parts of the show, Cudi has been able to create a story that most individuals are able to relate to and has music that best amplifies the audience’s emotions and interest into the characters.
With Cudi recently announcing a retirement from creating music albums, this combination of animation and music is definitely a memorable send off and a good one at that.