Kid Cudi released the song Pursuit of Happiness on January 25, 2010, which is a part of his album Man on the Moon: The End of the Day. The song made its first television debut on The Late Show with David Letterman on September 12, 2009. Cudi’s album also consists of other popular songs including “Day N Nite”, “Soundtrack 2 My Life”, and “Man on the Moon.”
Pursuit of Happiness comes across as a bright, cheerful song that is about living life in happiness, however the much deeper meaning in the lyrics headlines a man that is in a dark place who struggles to obtain contentment. The man masks the bleak truth with components such as alcohol and drugs, but never comes to realize that they will only cover up unhappiness for a small …show more content…
He knows that the way he is living his life is wrong, “If I fall if I die, know I lived my life to the fullest.” (7) People are warning him and telling him to stop, but he wants to find peace, joy and a distraction from his evil reality, he does this by making daring choices. This transitions into the second stanza where he says “I'm on the pursuit of happiness and I know that everything will shine ain't always gonna be gold.” (9) claiming that once happiness is found everything will be positive, still ignoring the warning from others to stop his rebellious pursuit of his happiness. The third stanza then takes a turn to darkness and he then goes after the people who have warned him about his lifestyle, “You don't really care about the trials of tomorrow, rather lay awake in the bed full of sorrow.” (22) then he accuses people of not knowing what he has been through leading him to where he stands in life now. He then explains what he has been through with nightmares keeping him up at night. Instead of people being judgemental of his actions he wants people to understand what he is going through, dealing with his night terrors. He wants people to dig deeper and understand where he is coming from. The night terrors represent when he comes out of his contented state from drugs and alcohol, and goes back to his dim and depressed …show more content…
Although this is a major meaning to the song and has much of a significance, after reviewing the lyrics and digging deeper I found that the man was striving so hard to find his happiness and contentment that he missed the little details and points that are supposed to lead him to his happiness. After living the rebellious life it's clear at the end of the song that he regrets living the life he lived and did not find his happiness. This is clear when he says “ Oh God, why did I smoke and drink so much” (23). It is natural for people to seek happiness in worldly things and nowadays especially, people look for satisfaction and contentment usually in drugs or alcohol. They end up regretting their choices and not finding the happiness and satisfaction they were looking for. In the song the man makes rebellious and dangerous decisions such as being drunk while driving and smoking weed, but in all of this while he was searching so hard to find his happiness he ignored all the signs that could have made him happy. He used drugs and alcohol to cover up his unhappiness, but once the effects of the substances wore off, he was back in the same dark place that he began. By listening close to the lyrics and digger deeper the listener can find that it can be easy to get lost and miss the true meaning of