Scott Mescudi, aka Kid Cudi has been a household name since the release of his masterful endeavour, 2009’s Man On The Moon. Songs like “Day ‘N’ Nite” and “Pursuit of Happiness” carry enough weight to sail Cudder safely into the land of legend, yet he continues to remain active and consistently release new projects yearly or bi-yearly. In 2018 it was KIDS SEE GHOSTS, the short but sweet experimental project from Cudi and longtime collaborator Kanye West. 2022 brought us the soundtrack accompanying his animated film Entergalactic; a Netflix rom-com with spider-verse style animation that pleased many fans. Now in 2024, we’ve been met with INSANO, the 21 track project hosted by everyone’s favourite voice–DJ Drama. The highs and lows on INSANO make it a bumpy ride, but one worth getting through if you’re looking for a good time. (Of course, INSANO just released today, so I want to make clear that my opinions here aren’t final. But, after listening to the project a few times throughout the day, I have some initial thoughts I wanted to share.)

To play devil’s advocate, I want to combat the argument I’ve seen that this album is a streaming ploy set out to collect money from TikTok users due to its length and catchy nature. On my first listen, I generally felt similar. I had to make some mental adjustments for the second and third venture into INSANO, which assisted me in finding enjoyment from more of the tracks. From the perspective of a long-time Kid Cudi fan, it’s awfully exciting to witness him in a more positive mindstate–working alongside his peers and clearly enjoying his time doing so. I’ve never heard Scott have this much fun. His rapping on INSANO isn’t filled with substance or thought-provoking ideas that are shaking the landscape of the game, but it’s not meant to. His flows feel loose and wild, especially on a song like “MOST AIN’T DENNIS” where his voice is dangling around dark BNYX production. I found myself bouncing around to the front-half of the project more than I had initially–picturing the pits that could come out of this album. I enjoy cuts like “GET OFF ME”, “WOW” and “TOO DAMN HIGH” way more than I thought I could, plus the reggae inspired “ELECTROWAVEBABY” is instantly a favourite track of 2024 so far for me. “AT THE PARTY” was a very good single as well, so I was excited to see it featured towards the middle of the project. 

Unfortunately, this is where I begin to have some concerns. The XXXTENTACION feature on “X & CUD” was something I was looking forward to, as I hadn’t heard new X content in a while. His legacy was not carried on appropriately though, as the song features an already released X song from his beloved album 17, with extra drums and Cudi adding essentially nothing to the song. It is a borderline disrespectful attempt at paying homage to a fallen artist, and one I wish I had never heard. Additionally, the album becomes more boring towards the end, making it harder to defend. I am not one to hate any type of music, but songs that don’t evoke any emotion in me at all are much worse than even ones which evoke negative thoughts. Although I still don’t believe INSANO is a poor attempt at newer trap music or anything of the sort, it just didn’t get the love it deserved on the back-half. I am grateful for the cuts I can add to my workout playlists, and the dark undertone of some songs definitely remain interesting, but I am slightly disappointed by the seeming lack of passion from tracks 12-21 (except for “BLUE SKY” and “RAGER BOYZ”).
This project shows the importance of a condensed, focused LP. INSANO does have some fun moments, especially in the beginning–but the sour taste that was left due to the second half of the project makes it one I won’t be returning to as much as I would’ve liked to. I am thankful Kid Cudi is in a better place though, and I hope he continues to have fun in the studio.