After dropping ye and being the executive producer on Pusha T’s Daytona, Kanye West has teamed up with Kid Cudi for their joint album KIDS SEE GHOSTS. Ever since we saw the release of Kanye West’s 808’s & Heartbreak we have been presented with the rumor that the two artists might eventually link up on a joint project. With the crazy potential of us wondering what might happen if these two legendary artists collaborated with one another, after a decade of waiting we thankfully don’t have to wait anymore.
From listening to the entire album of KIDS SEE GHOSTS, a common theme that we see within the project along with Kanye West’s latest releases is that he incorporates all of the various sounds that we have heard throughout all eras of his career. An example of these sonic eras can be seen from him showcasing his sampling perfection on The College Dropout and Late Registration to the speaker breaking drums and rawness heard in Yeezus.
In the opening track “Feel The Love”, Kanye West and Kid Cudi cut right to what we are looking for as Cudi is heard almost shouting “I can still feel the love” over a timid synth line. Surprisingly, Pusha T is heard immediately after spitting heat with deep poignant lines about how he is authentic and how other rappers are trying to be like him. The highlight within the opening track is from neither of these things when after a minute we are hit with Yeezus-like drum hits paired with Kanye West’s dramatic screaming ad-libs in the form of rhythmical accents heard above.
After making such a sharp opening statement, the second track “Fire” continues with the same intensity. Driven by distorted guitars accompanied by a deep pulsing kick, the second track from the KIDS SEE GHOSTS album provides us the opportunity to hear more developed bars from both Kanye West and Kid Cudi.
One of the most successful tracks on the entire project is 4th Dimension as it showcases the sampling perfection seen from Kanye with Louis Prima’s “What Will Santa Claus Say”. Within the track, Kanye’s controversial and direct lyricism comes into play in lines such as “It feels so good it should cost/Bought an alligator, I ain’t talkin’ Lacoste”.
On the fourth track “Freeee”, it serves as the second part to “Ghost Town” which was seen on Kanye West’s album ye. “Freeee” is probably the most successful song on the album when looking at the cohesiveness of both the lyrics and instrumentals. Lyrically, both Kanye and Cudi base the hook of the song around the first part of “Ghost Town” seen on ye with “I put my hand on a stove, to see if I still bleed/And nothing hurts anymore, I feel kinda free”. Based on those lyrics, Kanye and Cudi emphasize their lyrics on feeling “freeee” and stating “I don’t feel pain anymore”.
The tracks that follow seen in “Reborn” and “Kids See Ghosts” add a nice diversion to the intensity seen at this point in the project. What’s refreshing is that Kid Cudi’s ad-libs and complex vocal layering come into the spotlight in a more immersive way. His overall emotion and flow pairs nicely with the instrumentals, which can be considered to have a trancing quality.
On the final track “Cudi Montage”, it’s the perfect ending as we hear a more stripped down instrumental that features an acoustic guitar in addition by being surrounded with a tight percussion arrangement underneath. The layering of Cudi’s vocals especially at the end of the track is a nice way to end the project as well.
Knowing that everyone will be approaching Kanye West’s and Kid Cudi’s KIDS SEE GHOSTS album with high expectations, it is safe to say the expectations will be met. The production from the sampling, variety of instruments, sonic landscapes, to the overall mixing and mastering is stellar. The cohesiveness of the tracks also works well as each mesh smoothly with one another. Cudi’s vocals are amazing, especially when they are layered with each other while heard on top of a full instrumental.
Even though the project is highly successful, there were a few aspects from the actual rollout to some of the tracks that could have seen improvement. The release itself was highly unsuccessful as the WAV app that was set to premiere the album from the listening party crashed and delayed things by almost three hours. In addition, the song titles were not accurate and didn’t match the actual tracks on Apple Music and Spotify for over 12 hours after its release. The overall transparency and rollout to the fans could be far improved as it can be seen as rushed, unplanned, and sloppy. In addition, it definitely could have dampened the hype and excitement for some fans.
On the actual project, it would have been nice to have both parts of “Ghost Town” shown on either ye or KIDS SEE GHOSTS, it could have also been interesting to hear it in one extended track. In addition, Kid Cudi could have had a little more time behind the mic. Kanye’s verses were good, but not great. As always, some of his lyrics went too far to the point where it took away from the significance of several songs. At this point, it’s nothing unexpected from him, but there were points that were just simply cringe-worthy to the overall delivery of certain verses being questionable. Even though the production was incredible, because of this it was a distraction from the brilliance displayed.
