Passion, Pain & Demon Slayin'
| Kid Cudi
Passion, Pain & Demon Slayin'
Passion, Pain & Demon Slayin' is the sixth studio album by American rapper Kid Cudi. The album was released on December 16, 2016, by Wicked Awesome Records and Republic Records. It succeeds Cudi's alternative rock album Speedin' Bullet 2 Heaven (2015). The album features guest appearances from Andr 3000 (under his real name Andr Benjamin), Pharrell Williams, Travis Scott and Willow Smith. The production on the album was handled by Cudi himself, alongside Plain Pat, Mike Dean, Dot da Genius, Anthony Kilhoffer, Mike Will Made It and Pharrell Williams, among others. -Wikipedia
Critic Reviews
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Pitchfork
Scott Mescudi’s latest tome, the 87-minute Passion, Pain & Demon Slayin’, is the most focused he’s sounded since 2010’s Man on the Moon II, with the same drawbacks that have always plagued him.
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XXL
Passion, Pain & Demon Slayin' is what many Cudi fans have been waiting on for as long as five years. He returns to the sound and the producers that made him become a star around 2008, and that change has him making the best music he's made since those Man on the Moon albums.
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Hip Hop DX
Weighing in at 19 tracks and 86 minutes, PP&DS sprawls to a fault, but it sticks true to its branding. Cudi contorts through his emotions, at times too weak to fight, and at others rejuvenated and ready for battle, but the album comes as a requisite combatant to his demons, and a cinematic illustration of the war he’s continuing to fight.
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Complex
Thankfully, on Passion, Pain & Demon Slayin’, Cudi manages to find his sound again. In a year that saw him deal very publicly with personal demons, delivering an album that finally recaptures some of the excitement and magic of his music feels like a fitting, victorious end.
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Consequence
Passion, Pain & Demon Slayin’ seems concerned with little more than keeping up appearances. Hopefully, the high points of the album are a proper barometer, and Kid Cudi’s next destination is a sight better than this.
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Hot New Hip Hop
Kid Cudi's "Passion, Pain & Demon Slayin'" is an improvement on "Speedin' Bullet 2 Heaven," but that's not saying much.
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Drowned in Sound
It is definitely a record that demands repeated attention, as a cursory listen will not unveil all its hidden gems. It's instantly accessible than his previous records, but when Cudi is on his game he reaps unignorable rewards.
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The Guardian
Mescudi’s sixth album has a roll call of collaborators that feels like a group hug. Pharrell Williams and Andre 3000 add support on this hefty but intriguingly experimental 19-track marathon, while Willow Smith adds weirdness to Mescudi’s trademark humming on the dub hip-hop of Rose Golden.
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Daily Dot
Passion, Pain, & Demon Slayin’ has an epic album within its boundaries, hidden in the bloat of 19 tracks and nearly 90 minutes. While creative overextension has long been Cudi’s Achilles’ heel, here it’s an opportunity to explore his lyrical improvement, noticeably more textural and unforced.
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REVOLT
Everything from the title itself shows that if there's anything to be said about dark times, it's that if you stick through it with your chin up, head high, with the determination to work for better days, there's beauty that comes from within darkness.
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Pop Matters
While all this would typically signal an indulgent failure from any other artist, Passion, Pain & Demon Slayin’ might be Cudi’s best solo album.
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The Needle Drop
Kid Cudi returns with an album that plays more toward his strengths. I use the word "strengths" loosely.
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Uproxx
The album blows up all the problems with self-indulgence that Cudi’s had his entire career to massive levels. Throughout the 90-minute album (!) you can’t but feel that Cudi really needs someone in his corner, if only to tell him no.
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International Business Times
Cudi’s singing on songs such as “Swim In The Light” and “Wounds” isn’t easy on the ears but get Cudi rapping on songs like “Does It” or the Andre 3000-assisted track “By Design” or throw him over dance beats like “Dance 4 Eternity,” and you’re not going to want to turn the album off.
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USA Today
On Passion, he's accepted that "you could try and numb the pain, but it'll never go away," as he repeats to himself on Passion track Swim in the Light. Thankfully, he's still swimming.
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Mic
Knowing Kid Cudi's creative restlessness, he's likely already onto the next wave. But the new album adds some comfort and clarity to whatever's next.
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All Music
Passion, Pain & Demon Slayin' breathes gravitas into the Kid Cudi discography, realigning his trajectory and hinting at hope, possibility, and, most importantly, recovery.
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DJ Booth
Kid Cudi returns full of pain, but the passion seems to fall short on his new album.
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The Line of Best Fit
Divisive as they might be, Cudi’s experimental urges are what make him interesting; on Passion, Pain & Demon Slayin’, he’s largely drowned them in a sea of unenlightened navel-gazing.
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Spinditty
Kid Cudi’s sixth studio album ‘Passion, Pain & Demon Slayin’ is gleefully maverick. Weaving in and around the boundaries of hip-hop, its two-disc tracklisting is packed with interesting, experimental production trickery.
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Vavel
Now, with the album in question, what strikingly connotes an uninspired artist is the variety of soundscapes - there isn't much, most songs feel the same and have a lack of direction.
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Sputnik
It’s hard to fault Passion for it’s length too much, as the sound varies so much that it feels more exhilarating ride through Cudi’s conscious and less an excursion through a monotonous haze.
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The New Zealand Herald
The album drags on. There are a handful of tracks which sound so similar, Cudi could have done away with them and made it a 12-track release instead of the 19 tracks it holds.
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Riot Magazine
Passion, Pain & Demon Slayin’ is a return to the more upbeat, experimental hip-hop that originally rocketed the man on the moon into stardom and there is enough here to suggest that Kid Cudi is most definitely back on course for his zone.
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Immortal Reviews
Kid Cudi has been tearing up the scene for years now, and he's rolling into the new year with a new album to support. Passion, Pain, & Demon Slayin' is Cudi's sixth record, and while it has solid vibes, it lacks something to keep the flow going.
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