Right away, it's easy to see something's bothering Kid Cudi on Man On The Moon II: The Legend Of Mr. Rager. There's the Cleveland native's troubled slouch on the album cover, and his drab reflections throughout the recording. He's crying for an intervention.

But just as suddenly, Cudi shrugs you off with nonchalant arrogance, and you realize that he's OK, that the drugs he's taking are all in a day's work.

That's cool, right?

Maybe.

Honestly, he doesn't know.

Overall, Man On The Moon II is an irony-heavy, disoriented, and brooding project that encourages listeners to remain positive, chastises caregivers for giving a damn, and romanticizes various pharmaceutical addictions. Ultimately, the rhythms are the showcase, as Cudi's mumbled musings and tone-deaf babbling make for an insufferable product that is best served during weed time at your supplier's house.

Not surprisingly, the second Man On The Moon installment is much darker than its predecessor, due mostly to Cudi's much publicized struggles with cocaine use. In June, he was arrested in Manhattan for possession of a controlled substance. Then, there was the spat with Wale, who referenced in a freestyle an altercation between Cudi and a fan. Cudi called the rhyme "simple," and Wale quipped on Twitter about the artist's addiction to "liquid cocaine."

In his own sarcastic way, it sounds like Cudi is trying to atone on the quirky "Revofev," a groggy nursery rhyme that belongs in an R-rated Sesame Street. "Wake up, things might get rough/No need to stress, keeps you down too much," Cudi sings. The artist quickly shifts from penitence to indifference on the casual "Don't Play This Song," featuring Mary J. Blige, which is driven by scant drums and edgy synths. Here, Cudi and Blige sing: "People think they're really being helpful/By telling me, 'Please be careful,' yeah right." Other songs are more direct, like "Marijuana," for instance, which finds Cudi referencing other noted weed smokers over a piano laced track that summons the musical spirit of fellow Cleveland act Bone Thugs-N-Harmony.

History shows that the best artists wear emotions on their sleeves. They often tap into bottled experiences to present brutally honest portraits of the people they see in the mirror each day. John Lennon's tortured early solo work is one of the best examples of such aspirations. Nowadays, Cudi collaborator Kanye West has similar goals—though you wish he'd shut up more when he's outside the recording studio. On Man On The Moon II, Cudi emits that same raw honesty, presenting a no-frills look into his warped temperament. But unlike other artists who bare their souls, Cudi's still might be too fragile for public dissection.

In August, the D.C. rap ambassador released his anticipated More About Nothing mixtape, which garnered mixed reviews from fans and pundits.

Then, Wale encountered surprising criticism from estranged friend Kid Cudi, who was offended by a line on the "Thank You" freestyle ("Throwin' 'round wallets like the dude that Kid Cudi hit.") Cudi called the line a "simple ass rhyme," and Wale has since dismissed the remarks.

He's moved on, it seems, or he's simply changing the narrative. Either way, Wale will host a concert Tuesday night at U Street Music Hall to officially launch his new label imprint, The Board Administration, which already features longtime collaborators Fat Trel and Black Cobain. Wale joined Administration founders Legreg Harrison, Muhammad Hill, Nyrik Lee, and Clayton Mitchell last year as an executive and released the Nothing mixtape through the imprint. In December, he'll act as executive producer for the Administration's upcoming Crew Love mixtape.

Tuesday's concert will feature performances by UCB, Tiara Thomas, and Sasha, among others. Tickets are on sale here. Doors open at 6 p.m. U Street Music Hall is located at 1115 U Street NW.

*The 2010 Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival line-up was announced yesterday over a painstakingly long unveiling process. Some of the artists for the four-day Tennessee-based festival include: Kings of Leon (the first band to go from a tent stage to a headliner), Dave Matthews Band, Phoenix, Jay-Z, Norah Jones, The xx, Stevie Wonder, Zac Brown Band, LCD Soundsystem, Jeff Beck, Weezer, She & Him, The Flaming Lips, Ingrid Michaelson, Kid Cudi, and D.C. native Wale.

*Lil Wayne's planned trip to jail for attempted gun possession yesterday was postponed because of dental surgery. I'm thinking the diamond-encrusted grills may have had something to do with it. He is now set to head to prison March 2.

*Country superstar Dolly Parton said she is considering having White Stripes' frontman Jack White produce her next album. It wouldn't be White's first foray into the old country music scene; he's worked with legends like Loretta Lynn and Wanda Jackson before.

*It's confirmed that Tom Cruise will star in and produce the fourth installment of the Mission: Impossible series. J.J. Abrams won't be directing again, but will likely stay on board as a producer with Cruise. (Also seeing its fourth movie installment? Free Willy: Escape from Pirate's Cove — yes, there was more than one — is getting ready for release in March. The newest film stars Bindi Irwin, Beau Bridges, and, naturally, a giant killer whale.)

*Ellen DeGeneres made her debut as a judge on American Idol last night. I am torn as to whether this is the best or worst thing she's ever done for her career. (I'm leaning towards the latter.)

*Former I Love New York 2 reality show contestant Jamal Rashead Trulove was convicted of murder. Guess it wasn't "trulove" after all.

*Tonight in City Lights: authors Joanna Smith Rakoff and Dylan Landis read from their respective debut novels, A Fortunate Age and Normal People Don't Live Like This at the Arts Club of Washington.

Morning, y'all! Pep-pep's back, after an extended leave of absence, and he's ready to link your mind! For starters, WaPo runs yet another Facebook article; this time, there's a news peg on which to hang your irritation. Also, the Boston Globe really demonstrates its reach by patting the shit out of its own back: The paper's best nonfiction of the year essay (dudes–list this stuff from here on out), ranks Last Lion as the second best nonfiction books of the year, right after Sen. Ted Kennedy's memoir. Is there an embargo on real books in Beantown? Or, perhaps books not written by the Globe staff?

- Can I just say this, please? Man On the Moon is underrated. I am listening to this album right now, and it has me thinking I can do anything. Also, it's not like Kid Cudi is going on and on about how he's the best rapper in the world, which is something that hip-hop fans seem to demand from their idols. Kudi is more like Cobain, who was always kind of down on shit and never ever ever sang over and over, "I am the best grunge singer alive, I am the best grunge singer, bow down to the best grunge singer." HAHA I just paraphrased Jay-Z and I bet you all bobbed your heads. Anyway, Kudi as Cobain: Discuss.

- I ate this for dinner last night. Will I be gassy today? Stay tuned!

- Fall asleep in tauntaun guts, wake up in the same broken  home where you fell asleep in tauntaun guts!

- Gang pictures.

- Read this essay by Joe Queenan, which is about bad cover art, and tell me how much you hate it when some troglodyte points at the post-movie-release re-issue of your fave Cormac McCarthy book and says, "Isn't that a movie?" Or, as Queenan puts it: "I do not know what Huck looked like as Twain imagined him, any more than I know how F. Scott Fitzgerald envisioned Jay Gatsby. But Gatsby cannot look like Robert Redford, and the most memorable character in American fiction cannot look like the diabolically cuddly Elijah Wood. Cannot, cannot, cannot."

Photo via Official Star Wars Blog, Creative Commons Attribution License 2.0

Kid Cudi: "You Can Call Me Moon Man"
"You Can Call Me Moon Man," Kanye protege Kid Cudi reveals that he's not from the Midwest, as previously believed, but from the heavens. Specifically, the Moon. And what's it like on the moon? Dark, apparently. Cudi spends most of "You Can Call Me Moon Man" dropping sobering boasts along the lines of "Shit is so damn sick/ No antibiotic could ever fucking stop it/ If you copped it, please O.D." Other lines–"I make immortal songs for the mortals to cruise with,"– imply Cudi might be getting high on hot air.

Gang Gang Dance: "Live @ Southpaw, April 2008"
Just in case you forgot they were out there, Gang Gang Dance recently slipped a full live set into a podcast by Social Registry (the band's US label). Because the concert was taped all the way back in '08 and is largely made up of tunes from the group's last record, Saint Dymphna, so none of this is new, exactly. Then again, the way that the songs "First Communion" and "House Jam" are mashed up here with slurry jams, you might not recognize them right away, anyway.

Six Organs of Admittance: "The Ballad of Charley Harper"
In his paintings, Cincinnati-based artist Charley Harper sought to simplify nature–to create an ordered representation of a complex reality. There's a good chance that Six Organs of Admittance's "The Ballad of Charley Harper," with its slowly cycling melodies, is an homage to that sensibility. Ben Chasny uses simple components–an acoustic guitar, some distortion, a single lyric–to suggest some larger and more elusive mystic truth.

Health: "Die Slow"

Los Angeles noise-punks Health, whose debut LP sounded sort of like a vocoder getting tossed down a particularly ragged set of stairs, get a little more overtly tuneful on this new single. In fact, "Die Slow", with its foreboding industrial synths, clubby rhythm, and uneasy vocals, probably could have sold a fair share of cassingles in '94. It's the best argument yet for MTV to bring Alternative Nation out of retirement.

Stuart Murdoch: "God Help the Girl"
Give Stuart Murdoch some credit for knowing what he does best: wistful, thoroughly orchestrated, twee-pop about young, hip, and lonely women. This song from the Belle & Sebastian songwriter's long-in-the-works musical, God Help the Girl, doesn't do much to upend that winning formula. The strings, the dashed hopes, and the necessary kitchen-sink-drama lyrics are all there, only now there's a real-life hipster-woman belting it out, instead of Murdoch.

Kid Cudi feat. Kanye West, Common, Lady Gaga: "I Poke Her Face"
Kid Cudi's latest leak finds him rapping alongside his majordomo, Kanye West, and, annoyingly, Lady Gaga, whose bratty scatting makes up a significant portion of the backing track. But rendered into a rhythm track, Gaga isn't half-bad, and she certainly can't bring down Cudi and Kanye's high-brow rhymes about "getting brain in the library."