A Breakdown of Kid Cudi’s “Man On The Moon II: The Legend Of Mr. Rager”

A Thread:

A sequel to the 1st MOTM, Man On The Moon II is an album that takes the listener on a journey into Cudi’s own life & state of mind, but in a rather dark & grim way. The album explores his struggles with depression, addiction, & fame & is filled w/ deep & sincere songwriting (1/2)

MOTM2 is divided into 5 acts, w/ each one getting increasingly darker as he slowly transforms into the alter-ego of Mr. Rager. This album is filled w/ raw emotion, & when you combine that w/ incredibly captivating production, it’ll almost always lead to an incredible listen (2/2)

Track 1: Scott Mescudi Vs. The World

In the opening track of Man On The Moon II, we see Cudi welcome the listener into his mind, letting them know what’s to come later on & to embrace for it in advance (1/2)

CeeLo Green then goes on to later appear in the chorus, informing the listener that it’s important for them to focus on the lyrics & meanings of the tracks to truly understand where Cudi was mentally during the making of Man On The Moon II (2/2)

Track 2: REVOFEV

In a more light-hearted song, Cudi tells the youth that although life may be tough at times, it’s important to not stress over it because it’ll lead to them being held back later on in their future. This is also the last track on Act 1, “The World I Am Ruling”

Track 3: Don’t Play This Song

Cudi talks about his drug use & how much it’s affected him, causing him to feel lonely & have suicidal thoughts. The song is titled “Don’t Play This Song” as a way to warn fans who are too afraid to hear about his struggles to not play the track

Track 4: We Aite (Wake Your Mind Up)

The 4th track entitled “We Aite (Wake Your Mind Up)” serves as an interlude for Man On The Moon II. In the song, Cudi frequently repeats “We aight” & “Time to make your mind up, to wake your mind up”, possibly telling this to himself

Track 5: Marijuana

As seen by the title of the track, “Marijuana” is Cudi’s ode to weed, discussing how much he uses it & how much it’s helped him in his life & through his problems. The length of this song is also 4:20, the number that symbolizes marijuana

Track 6: Mojo So Dope

In the final track of Act 2, Cudi continues to talk about his use of weed along with how care-free his lifestyle really is. On a darker note, he also speaks about his use of alcohol & how much he misses his dad, who sadly passed away when he was only 11

Track 7: Ashin’ Kusher

With “Ashin’ Kusher”, the listener now enters Act 3, entitled “Party On”. In this track, we see Cudi freestyle through 3 verses, mainly talking about how careless he is of other people’s opinions on him & how fame has greatly influenced him & his name

Track 8: Erase Me - Main

In this track, Cudi sings over a rock instrumental about how hard it’s been for him to be in a broken relationship. He says that he thinks the girl he’s with hates him, mainly because she apparently doesn’t think he spends enough time with her (1/3)

This girl wants to break up with Cudi but can’t seem to pull herself to do it because she always misses him after a long period of time, making the relationship inescapable but yet completely destroyed & broken (2/3)

Kanye continues the topic of ruined relationships with his verse, as he tells a story about falling in love with a girl he met only to later break up w/ her because of how she was causing him problems with his mental health, stating that all good things must come to an end (3/3)

Track 9: Wild’n Cuz I’m Young

Cudi goes on to talk more about his drug & alcohol addiction, saying that he uses these substances to cope w/ reality & to gain energy needed to live through his days. He also says he feels careless under their influence, hence the name of this song

Track 10: The Mood

On “The Mood”, Cudi tells a story about meeting up with a woman & making out with her. This track is the last of Act 3; starting now, the album will be much more dark & depressing, as it dives deeper into the mind of Cudi & the mental problems he faces

Track 11: MANIAC

In the first track of Act 4, titled “The Transformation”, we see Cudi exploring the darker parts within him & his personality before he finally comes to terms with it all & embraces it, declaring himself as a maniac as his depression now begins to intensify

Track 12: Mr. Rager

“Mr. Rager” is seen as the main climax of Man On The Moon II. Here, Cudi talks about his drug addiction & how badly he wants to change & be happy again without the assistance of drugs. Throughout the track, he speaks with his alter-ego, Mr. Rager (1/2)

Mr. Rager represents all the trauma & darkness that’s within him. He repeats the phrases “I’m off on a adventure” & “I’m on my way to heaven”, meaning that Cudi’s now going to heaven & that Mr. Rager is slowly taking over his body; Cudi is losing in his fight with addiction (2/2)

Track 13: These Worries

Cudi discusses how much he worries about the amount of damage he’s done to his health due to the use of drugs & alcohol. However, he later says that he’s slowly overcoming his demons & that he’s doing everything he can to withdraw from drug usage entirely

Track 14: The End

Cudi acknowledges his past mistakes & learns to never repeat them again on “The End”. The track continues the topic of overcoming demons, with Cudi realizing that despite coke feeling helpful to him at first, it’s only making his life worse than it already is

Track 15: All Along

With “All Along”, the listener now enters the final Act of MOTM2, titled “You Live, You Learn”. Here, Cudi realizes that he’s gonna have to fight some of his battles alone, because there’s just some things that no one except yourself can help you get through

Track 16: GHOST!

On “GHOST!”, Cudi addresses his depression & how he always feels alone & misunderstood by the public eye. He also acknowledges the fact that he’s almost died several times because of his addiction to drugs, realizing that he needs to change before it’s too late

Track 17: Trapped In My Mind

Cudi admits that he’s trapped in his head & that there’ll always be a darker side of him living within this body, so instead of running from it, he finally chooses to accept it & move on with his life in hopes of soon bettering himself as a person

MOTM2 is quite literally a trip down a broken & deranged mind; one that’s filled with emotion, tragedy, & sincerity. From the trippy & fascinating production to the deep & gloomy lyricism, this album is nothing short of a masterpiece & to me is Cudi’s best project to date

PLEASE READ: Mr. Rager is an amazing track, one of the best on the whole album, but because of how much meaning there is to it, I wasn’t able to fully dissect it on this thread (1/2)

However, I was able to do this in another thread linked below, where I not only go over the song in its entirety, but I breakdown the music video to it as well, so if you have time, please give it a read: https://twitter.com/real_zen1/status/1355574007169511429?s=21 (2/2)

i hope you liked this thread!

let me know if you wanna see more album breakdowns in the near-future along with any suggestions you might have for me also

hope you have a great rest of your day