Insano

INSANO is Kid Cudi’s ninth studio album, and his first collaboration album with DJ Drama, following up Cudi’s September 2022 album, Entergalactic.

On September 23, 2021, Cudi would reveal during an Instagram live stream that he was working on new music “beyond Entergalactic, and that the song he would go on to preview, “Killswitch,” would be on it. Cudi would also say that the music heard on the stream wouldn’t be released until “years from now”, giving a rough date of 2023.

On December 11, 2021, during his Rolling Loud festival set, Cudi would debut “Freshie” live. Before playing the song, Cudi announced his plans to drop two albums in 2022, with one being released before the previously announced Entergalactic.

“I’m teasing all this stuff because, as you know, I have Entergalactic coming in the summer. But, I wanna drop another album before that. And, I got some tasty surprises and I really am excited about all this new shit; this new music to give to you guys. So, that’s why I’m teasing this shit now because it’s coming out soon.”

Two albums would be released in 2022: The Boy Who Flew to the Moon, Vol. 1, a “best of" compilation and Entergalactic, Cudi’s long-delayed eighth album soundtracking its corresponding Netflix animated series. Cudi’s 2008 mixtape debut A Kid Named Cudi would also officially make its way to streaming services. But, with the release of the three projects, only one of which, Entergalactic, would contain new music.

On November 6, 2022, Kid Cudi took to Twitter announcing that he would be releasing one final album before his retirement.

In a follow-up tweet, Kid Cudi addressed that the album would be dedicated to the fans who had supported him throughout the years.

On February 19th, 2023, he posted a tweet insinuating that he will drop his album in June. However, on February 27, Cudi announced that he would be releasing the album in the Fall of 2023, with the first few singles being released in the Summer of 2023.

In May 2023, Kid Cudi released a snippet of a song entitled “Flex," which he announced would be the first single to the upcoming album. However, after poor responses from fans, he announced that another single would be released instead. That same month, the album was reportedly leaked in its entirety.

On June 2, 2023, Cudi would release the official lead single to the album, titled “PORSCHE TOPLESS.” That same day, Cudi revealed on Twitter the album’s official name:

"Album is called #INSANO

The world is not ready…"

That same month, Kid Cudi hosted a listening event of the album in Los Angeles, where he played eight songs off the album, with reported features from Travis Scott, Pharrell Williams, A$AP Rocky, and Wiz Khalifa. Cudi also announced that the album would be released in September, alongside a deluxe version.

After keeping radio silent about the album for a few months, on August 18, 2023, Kid Cudi took to social media to reveal four cover arts for the album, alongside releasing pre-order merch. The tracklist was also revealed through pictures of the album’s physical copies.

A few weeks later, Cudi updated fans on social media, letting them know that he had to push to album back once again, this time to January 2024. He says that it’s worth it and he is excited to share this project with his fans.