A Breakdown of the Music Video to Mr. Rager

A Thread:

Mr. Rager is undoubtedly one of Cudi’s most iconic songs & is widely considered as the best on Man On The Moon II. In the song, Cudi focuses on his struggles with drug addiction, talking about how badly he wants to be happy & live a promising life without the help of cocaine.

Throughout the track, we see Cudi speak with Mr. Rager himself. Mr. Rager is an alter-ego of Cudi, representing the darker sides of his personality. During their conversation, he constantly says the phrases “I’m off on an adventure” & “I’m on my way to heaven”.

This could mean 1 of 2 things; Cudi’s now going to heaven & Mr. Rager is slowly taking over his body (he is losing in his fight with addiction) or Cudi’s actually winning his fight with addiction & Mr. Rager is now going to heaven, with Cudi now finally finding peace of mind.

The lyrics to Mr. Rager can be interpreted in many ways. This also goes for the music video to the song, which is just as interesting & further explains the meaning behind Mr. Rager in a more detailed & thrilling story of Cudi battling his problems.

The video starts with Cudi’s therapist hypnotizing him as a way to help overcome his addiction. His imagination then takes him to a large building where he’ll soon battle against all of his problems.

Mr. Rager is on top of the building; he’s gonna be watching Cudi as he fights with his demons throughout the entire video. Cudi’s main goal is to finally take out Mr. Rager & put an end to all of this problems, but he’s gonna have to go through many obstacles in order to do this.

We see Cudi trying to break a lock to enter this building, likely symbolizing him going into his mind to finally face all the demons within him.

Cudi finally enters the building. Notice how the entire place is dark, ruined, dirty, & abandoned; this is what Cudi’s mental state was like at the time of the creation of MOTM2. Drugs & alcohol destroyed his health, & he now seeks to regain his happiness by taking out Mr. Rager.

Mr. Rager notices Cudi below the building & throws a flaming bottle down at him, setting the ground ablaze & forcing Cudi to move up to a higher floor where all of his demons are waiting for him & ready to fight.

Cudi finally sees his demons face-to-face after running up a staircase. Each of the enemies he faces represent the problems & struggles Cudi is going through in life (cocaine, alcohol, fame, relationship problems, depression, etc.)

After taking time to fully understand the situation he’s in, Cudi releases his anger & starts brawling with all of the demons on the floor with him. Cudi gains the upper hand for the most part & only barely takes a few hits as he gets deeper into the fights.

Mr. Rager continues to look over Cudi from the top of the building the entire time, patiently waiting to have the opportunity to meet him.

After some time passes, Cudi throws a punch at Kanye West without realizing that he’s even there before he suddenly vanishes right when Cudi’s about to land the punch.

This represents how Kanye signed Cudi to the GOOD Music record label, & how he now regrets signing to it because it was at the moment when he was first brought into the harsh environment of the industry. This would all go on to play a very large role in Cudi’s mental breakdown.

After missing the punch, Cudi loses balance & is then attacked by the demons before being pushed back against a wall & thrown through wooden planks.

Cudi being thrown through the wall represents him being thrown into a much deeper darkness, making it harder for him to keep moving forward in life. Cudi doesn’t give up however, as he climbs right back up to his feet & attempts to try to start fighting once again.

Cudi wouldn’t last long though, as he’s later met with a punch before collapsing again, coughing out blood in the process. He then gets beat down by the rest of the mob while still trying to regain his strength.

He’s then picked up by a larger demon, but Cudi tries to fight back by repeatedly punching them in the face until they fall down; Cudi’s only focusing on one of his problems, even though he still has many more to face later on, some of which he sadly won’t be able to win against.

After taking the demon down, a woman throws dust into the eyes of Cudi, blinding him when he’s at his most vulnerable. The woman represents all of his past relationship struggles coming back to him & ruining him, using dust as a way to stop him from regaining peace within himself

Mr. Rager then arrives at the scene, taking off his hood to reveal himself as he pulls out his knife & finally stabs Cudi with it, leaving him motionless. Mr. Rager has now fully taken over Cudi’s mind & body, leaving him to slowly die from the stab wound.

Cudi finally wakes up from the hypnotic state he was in, wearing the same black & red jacket Mr. Rager was when he killed Cudi while he was hypnotized.

What this says is that the old Cudi was killed & left behind in a lost battle against his demons, & that the new Cudi, now Mr. Rager, will continue to exist within the body of Cudi himself & live on in the real world; Mr. Rager stands victorious.

The music video to Mr. Rager is one of the best I’ve seen in a while. Everything from the visuals to the effects were incredible & every single detail on it is worth paying attention to because it all comes together to form the exhilarating story of Kid Cudi & Mr. Rager.

If you haven’t seen it for yourself already, then I highly suggest checking out it whenever you can; it’s an experience you’ll remember for a very long time

if you haven’t yet, please check out the MOTM2 thread i posted earlier today. on there i breakdown the album in it’s entirety, discussing the meaning behind the project along with the meaning of every song https://twitter.com/real_zen1/status/1355573794748981251?s=21

hope you have an amazing rest of your day