Kid Cudi and Eminem are two rappers who have been on a completely different artistic path for the duration of their careers. Today, the two have released their first-ever collaboration titled “The Adventures of Moon Man & Slim Shady”. While the pairing is definitely unexpected, I’m intrigued to see how it will sound.
The song opens up with a minimalistic beat reminiscent to video game menu music from the mid-2000s. Once the instrumental settles in Kid Cudi comes in with a choppy staccato flow. For most of his verse, he blurts out incoherent lines like “Knock your top off with LeBron or Dwyane Wade”. Even worse, Mr. Rager’s adlibs are painfully bad as well, which is a more significant blow as Cudi is renowned for having some of the best in the game. After Cudi’s verse, the track gives you no room to breathe as Eminem comes in. With the same annoying flow as Cudi, Marshall raps with a monotone delivery. One notable line which he says is “Purp nor lean (Nah), that’s Tunechi (Yeah) That’s New Orleans (Yeah), fuck Drew Brees (Yeah)” which is a diss at New Orleans Saints legend Drew Brees for his recent comments about kneeling for the national anthem. After finally starting to pick up lyrically, Em starts blurting out corny bars like “Not high, but I’m your highness” and “I mouthwash, ’cause if I was on the floor, I’d swish” which are some of his worst bars since his 2017 failure, Revival. After more unjust self-boasting and terrible wordplay, Em speaks on the injustices in America, specifically the coronavirus and the untimely death of George Floyd. Once he goes on this tangent, the track is a lot more enjoyable as Eminem is way more focused on what he is rhyming about. Unfortunately, the only good part of the song is cut short by Kid Cudi’s outro. On the closing verse, Mescudi pretty much just finds 100 different ways to say him and Slim Shady’s names until the beat fades out.
I can’t even put into words how much of a let down this track is. While I have had my handful of gripes with these artists over the years, I would never think their pairing would be this bad. I think the track’s biggest issue is that each artist tries to sound like the other, which is just super awkward to listen to. Going forward, I hope Eminem and Kid Cudi never collaborate again as this is honestly a disgrace to hip hop music as a whole.
Rating: 1/10
