Tag: Free

KiD CuDi – “Free” review

Cleveland, Ohio rapper, singer/songwriter, producer, actor, fashion designer, model, director & filmmaker KiD CuDi making another stylistic departure with his 11th LP. Blowing up in 2008 off his debut mixtape A KiD Named CuDi as well as his songwriting credits on his mentor Ye or the Nazi 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 & is staying on Republic to drop Free fresh off his appearance in Happy Gilmore 2 with the longest reigning AEW World Champion & current CMLL Mundial Peso Semicompleto Campeon MJF and the current WWE Women’s Intercontinental Champion Becky Lynch.

“Neverland” after the self-produced “Echoes of the Present” compositional intro fuses pop rock, alt-pop, stomp & holler and synthpop to sing about love & embracing life whereas my favorite single “Mr. Miracle” culminates in pop rock, alternative rock & power pop feeling like he’s found his way back home. “Opiate” spaciously sings for the city to turn the lights off leading into “Deep Diving” finding himself having enough of no love.

Pop rock & alt-rock cross paths once again on “Truman Show” referencing the classic Jim Carrey film of the same name just before “Submarine” sings about feeling like he’s to deep into this psychedelic dream he’s having. “Ashes” goes for a moodier direction in sound wishing this person would lie to him & tell him they still mean something while the emo-pop rock single “Grave” sings about life eating him alive.

“Past Life” vents over the dichotomy of simultaneously being a winner & a loser in the same mind over a synthpop instrumental while “Picnic in Paris” sings about a soulmate waiting his whole life from him mixing the positives & negatives. “Stargazing” considers himself lucky if freedom was garden & sending love letters to this woman for eternity while “Salt Water” produced by BNYX of Working on Dying ends by singing about calling his life 1 hell of a ride.

The idea of KiD CuDi foraying into pop music doesn’t sound bad at all on paper, but Free as an attempt to provide the world with hope in the midst of our country’s current political climate leaves me a little torn. I have no issues with his vocals or songwriting & I’m proud he’s the happiest he’s ever been. My main criticism here though is that the production doesn’t grab me the same way INSANO 2: NITRO MEGA or the original INSANO did.

Score: 2.5/5

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Eternia – “Free” review

Eternia is a 40 year old MC from Ottawa, Ontario, Canada who came up in 2005 off her full-length debut It’s Called Life. This was followed up with Where I’m At & the MoSS-produced At Last but after taking a 12 year hiatus, so much has happened to her in life & has decided to tap in Rel McCoy for her 4th album backed by now none other than Fat Beats Records.

After the intro, the first song “Freedom99” with Wordsworth kicks things off with a boom bap cut about how the city used to be their playground leading into him & Shad addressing homelessness on the emotional “Home”. She & Rel come together on the piano-tinged “Cycles” to talk about their lives are like 1, but then her husband Mr. Lif come together with “The Story of Us” compassionately detailing how they met.

“Most PPL” works in a fuzzy instrumental tackling the themes of loyalty just before “Praise” almost has a bit of a funk flare showing love to the higher power. “Grow” is quite possibly Eternia at her most vulnerable moments talking about how the world as she knows it is gone whereas “All the Men” dramatically calls out her exes on wax.

The song “Wonderful World” almost has a bit of a dystopian sound taking shots at modern technology while the penultimate track “Secret” finds Mr. Lif reuniting on top of a hollow instrumental tackling the theme of fear. “Let No Dream Fall” finishes off the album by emotionally telling us how she feels inside at the moment.

I was wondering what happened to Eternia for a while now, so it makes me happy to see that she’s made a comeback on here. She rips up the mic like she never even left to begin with & Rel McCoy’s production is just boom bap galore.

Score: 4/5