Brand new extended play from Cleveland, Ohio rapper, singer/songwriter, producer, actor, fashion designer, model, director & filmmaker KiD CuDi. Blowing up in 2008 off his debut mixtape A KiD Named CuDi as well as his songwriting credits on his mentor Ye formerly known as Kanye West’s 4th album 808s & Heartbreak, his profile from there would increasingly grow off his groundbreaking debut & sophomore albums Man on the Moon: The End of the Day & Man on the Moon II: The Legend of Mr. Rager. But following the self-produced & overlooked Indicud, CuDi would leave G.O.O.D. Music amicably to form his own Republic Records imprint Wicked Awesome Records. Satellite Flight: The Journey to Mother Moon though was mediocre at best & who could forget when CuDi attempted to go alt-rock on the critically panned Speedin’ Bullet 2 Heaven? Luckily he would redeem himself on his next effort Pain & Demon Slayin’ in 2016 along with the self-titled album from him & Ye as the duo KIDS SEE GHOSTS couple summers later & even Man on the Moon III: The Chosen the day after my 24th birthday despite it’s blatantly heavy Travis Scott influence. Entergalactic was released mixed reviews as was INSANO, but I enjoyed how both LPs took it back to his roots along with mixing old & new sounds together respectively. INSANO 2: NITRO MEGA continued the energy of its predecessor. Free came out last summer & found myself disappointed by it although I appreciate him going for a poppier sound, posing the question of Have U BN 2 Heaven @ Nite?.
“Real Ones Never Die” starts us off with some wavy synthesizers & acoustics singing about the legitimate lasting for eternity whereas “Drown” produced by BNYX of Working on Dying goes full pop rock singing about an evil awaiting him. “Halos & Angels” reunites with his WZRD cohort Dot da Genius blending neo-psychedelia & alternative R&B looking to get his mind right while “Ride Ride” ends with a peacefully climatic outro he self-produced culminating in the styles of alternative R&B, neo-psychedelia & pop rap.
75% of this EP was already released as singles & considering that all 3 of them were bangers to me anyway, I knew I’d come away from Have U BN 2 Heaven @ Nite? enjoying it more than Free & it makes me anticipate his upcoming 12th album more than I initially was prior to listening to this although I’d love for BNYX to do an entire project with him eventually. The production’s a huge improvement above the latter album mixing alternative R&B, neo-psychedelia, pop rap & pop rock capturing his range as an artist rather than sticking to 1 particular sound & we get a look at where he is now that he’s no longer on a major label.
Score: 3.5/5
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