Kid Cudi has been burning up everybody’s radar since his exceptional mixtape hit the web last summer. His chart-topping single, “Day N Nite” has catapulted Kid Cudi to superstardom. Expectations for his debut album, Man on the Moon: The End of Day, were reaching monumental levels at this point.

Because of his affiliation with hip-hop genius Kanye West, we all (I included) came to expect a 2009 College Dropout from Kid Cudi. Not surprisingly, the album leaked before its September 15th release date, and after a handful of listens (4 so far), it misses the bar set by Kanye’s debut album. Man On The Moon is on a whole other playing field, setting up bars of its own. A bar that fellow newcomers Wale and Drake now must meet, and to be frank, a bar they probably cannot hang onto with the longevity proposed by Man on the Moon.

The third official single off the record, “Pursuit of Happiness,” was produced by electronic duo Ratatat and features Brooklyn superheroes MGMT. The beat is smooth and slick — props Ratatat. It wraps itself nicely around Kid Cudi’s painstaking lyrics and MGMT’s subdued vocal contributions.

Man on the Moon: The End of Day is out September 15th and a deluxe edition with a DVD will also be released. Catch Ratatat and Cudi performing “Pursuit of Happiness” on “The Late Night Show With David Letterman” tomorrow (Tuesday). Listen to the track here: Continue reading →