Kid Cudi releases surprise album, 'Satellite Flight'

Offering just a few hours' notice, Kid Cudi surprised fans by issuing a new album at midnight.
Late Monday, the alt-rapper began dropping hints via Twitter that his latest, “Satellite Flight: The Journey to Mother Moon,” would soon arrive.
Keeping with his trippy, outer-space motifs, Cudi told his followers (or “fellow galaxy travelers”) that “Tickets to Copernicus Landing will be available for purchase via iTunes in the next 2 hours.” “Copernicus Landing,” is one of the 10 tracks featured on the new album.
“Time to make the world stand still,” the rapper tweeted before issuing a one-hour warning and finally calling his travelers to “board” with a link to purchase the album on iTunes.
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Sound familiar? Cudi joins a growing list of artists tightening the gap between pre-album hype and release.
Jay Z used a commercial during the NBA finals last year to give fans a two-week notice that he was dropping “Magna Carta Holy Grail” for free via Samsung smartphones. Kanye West tweeted a cryptic date for what turned out to be “Yeezus.” The oft-polarizing rapper then drummed up a ton of pre-album hype.
And barely two weeks will pass between the time Pharrell casually announced his first record in nearly eight years and when fans will be able to purchase it.
Cudi’s move also calls to mind BeyoncĂ©’s game-changing stunt when she stealthily unleashed a 14-track/17-video opus at the tail end of 2013.
But unlike Bey, Cudi didn’t keep fans completely in the dark about his project.
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The rapper had been prepping the album since wrapping a tour in support of last year’s “Indicud.” While touring, he announced that “Satellite Flight” would be an EP prelude to the forthcoming third installment of his “Man on the Moon” series.
By late January, the EP had morphed into a full-length album, and Cudi announced it would be released in February (“thats what u get for being so patient w me. Ur gonna love it,” he tweeted last month).
“Satellite Flight: The Journey to Mother Moon” is currently available only through digital retailers and for the next week can be purchased only in its entirety.
A physical copy is expected to contain extra tracks. No release date for the physical copy has been announced, but Cudi pointed out that “Satellite Flight’s” release date was originally listed on iTunes as April 29, "but that's a glitch. Or is it," he tweeted with a wink.



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