Man On The Moon: The End of Day - Writing and Development

Writing and Development

According to Allmusic, soon after it was announced that Cudi would release this album it became "deep in the category of 'much anticipated'". Prior to the album being picked up by the likes of Universal Motown and GOOD Music, he had previous worked with mentor and fellow rapper Kanye West on his 2008 record 808s & Heartbreaks, co-writing four hits for it. He said that without those song successes Man on the Moon: The End of Day would not have been picked up by any major labels. Cudi, who became West's protege and collaborator, hoped Man on the Moon: The End of Day would show people that he had his own voice and set him apart. The record was originally titled Man on the Moon: The Guardians, but its subtitle was later changed to The End of Day. Performance artist Andy Kaufman partly inspired the new title. He planned for this record to be the first in a trilogy, with the next edition being entitled The Ghost and the Machine.

Before the success of "Day 'N' Nite", the rapper had said that he would never try to mix politics or jocular things in with his lyrical content. After realizing the power of his voice he then decided to make important and unique songs, focusing on the message, rather than just creating inane music. He said his mode of operation at that time "was just, 'Hey, I’m making these cool sounding songs and I have little messages in them'", but still had himself in it. Although Cudi had a message in every track, he chose to avoid using dense lyrics, explaining that he did not want to write material that he would not actually say or use in real life, adding that being true to yourself entirely was meaningful to him. "I don’t speak like a fucking nerdy guy; I speak like a regular dude", he remarked.

He wrote "Day 'N' Nite" after the death of his uncle. The two were not on speaking terms after his uncle forced him out of his home before Cudi could find another living situation. A bitter Cudi never apologized to him before his death, which he now regrets. Other songs on the album expand upon themes discussed in that single. Back in 2007, Drake, who was one of Cudi's first supporters, had shown interest in doing an official remix of the song with him. However, Cudi chose against it since he was not interested in working with people who are in the "same creative realm" as him and because he was in the midst of creating his own works. Beginning in the fourth grade, and getting more tense after his father's death when he was 11, Cudi began dreaming of his own death (which usually was an automobile accident). He channeled these things into his material. Speaking to Black Book Magazine in May 2009, Cudi said of the album and its content,

Each song is a message. All the hooks are stadium-worthy, crowd sing-along, powerful joints that I can’t wait for people to hear in stadium magnitude. My album definitely needs to be heard loudly, but it’s also a great album if you’re smoking and you need to go to sleep. So far I have the lineup of how I want the first seven tracks on my album and if I play the first seven from the beginning to the end, I’m zoned out and it’s the best trip ever. You need to be high to appreciate the instrumentation and how everything is put together on the album—but you don’t have to be high just to enjoy it in general.