The 10th anniversary of Kid Cudi's Man on the moon...honoured with socks

With the 10th anniversary of Kid Cudi's debut album Man on the moon: The end of day in September, Kid Cudi has partnered with Stance to release a limited edition range of socks featuring some of the artwork and colour ways of his debut album.

This shit is so fucking random. So of course I'm all about it. Plus, the socks actually look nice. I  wouldn't pay $18 for a pair. But shout outs to those of you that would and already have.

I really liked Man on the moon: The end of day back when it first released in 2009. But even so, there was a lot to that album that didn't quite hit me back then as it did in later years when I'd return to it. At first I was from the outside looking into things I didn't really know, which made it like most Rap albums I'd listened to at that point. But then as I got older and started facing things like anxiety, depression and loss, it just hit different. Even with Kid Cudi laying his life bare and in plain sight, there was still so much going on that we weren't aware of. And because it was a Rap album, it was easy to almost dismiss alot of hat was being said, because a lot of Rap has been and continues to be  about loss (Bitches leaving, homies getting shot, somebody else gettin' popped) and drugs. It just further goes to show how what someone puts in front of you and what's really going on can be two different things and be interpreted in so many different ways. But is also a testament to Kid Cudi as an artist. To craft something that can still offer something, after seemingly consuming all it had to give.

Man on the moon to this day is probably one of Cudi's more popular albums, because it got caught in the storm that was Kanye West's 808s & heartbreak. An album that Kid Cudi had co-written songs for and had featured on. And when Cudi's solo album finally released, it clicked for many just how much of an impact he'd had on Kanye's album. So it was absolutely no surprise when they announced their joint album Kids see ghosts, which pretty much sounds like a Kid Cudi album featuring Kanye West.

To be honest, Kid Cudi fell off my radar sometime after Man on the moon released. His follow-up albums weren't as good. And whilst Cudi was able to take his insecurities, issues and anxieties, and have them manifest into good stories and great music for Man on the moon, they did the absolute reverse on some of what came after. I was rooting for Kid Cudi getting his shit together, but I couldn't fuck with those albums.

But even when I turned my back on much of his music, Cudi remained an artist I liked for being so authentic to himself. And for being a different representation of blackness and a black man in Rap. He's always marched to the beat of his own drum, even when that shit was off-beat. And he's never conformed to what is deemed more Hip-Hop or 'Black' within the mainstream. He'll walk out on stage in a cropped sweatshirt, skinny jeans and Chuck Taylor's, when others are in baggy ass street wear, or fucking Gucci (which I'm sick to death of seeing). Being open about his battle with depression and feeling suicidal within communities where it's still considered taboo to talk about weakness or feelings. Cudi is the kind of artist that deserves to be raised up and acknowledged. And if the start of that is socks bitch, then fine.

🧦 Buy the damn socks: Stance x Kid Cudi
📝 Random J Pop album review: Kid Cudi - Man on the moon: The end of day