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Man on the Moon III: The Chosen

2020 studio album by Kid Cudi

Manuscripts, fine bindings, an engraving plate and preserved performance ephemera
Arts and lettersInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionAug 8, 2026
Entity authorityQ104010556
Source-derived summary

Man on the Moon III: The Chosen is the seventh studio album by American musician Kid Cudi, released on December 11, 2020, by Wicked Awesome Records and Republic Records. It is the final installment of Cudi's Man on the Moon trilogy of albums (which includes 2009's Man on the Moon: The End of Day and 2010's Man on the Moon II: The Legend of Mr. Rager).

The 18-track album was produced mainly by Cudi himself and Dot da Genius, along with Plain Pat, Emile Haynie and Mike Dean, all of whom contributed to the previous two Man on the Moon albums. Guest vocals on the album are contributed by Phoebe Bridgers, Pop Smoke, Skepta and Trippie Redd.

Thematically, Man on the Moon III is a concept album that finds Cudi in an internal struggle against his evil alter ego, Mr. Rager, in hopes to win back his peace and happiness. As with the previous two installments in the trilogy, the album is divided into separate acts.

Man on the Moon III: The Chosen received mostly positive reviews from music critics, who praised Cudi's songwriting and generally favored the latter two acts, though some found it derivative of Cudi's earlier albums. It debuted at number two on the Billboard 200, earning 144,000 album-equivalent units of which 15,000 were pure sales, marking Cudi's fifth top 10 album in the US.

Background and conception

Kid Cudi released the first edition of his Man on the Moon series in 2009; with the subtitle The End of Day, the album detailed the struggles of Cudi's loneliness in his formative years, as well as dealing with the death of his father at an early age.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “Man on the Moon III: The Chosen” as 2020 studio album by Kid Cudi. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Moon, Chosen and studio.

Editorial reviewBest approached as a cultural-object dossier: authorship and date matter, but circulation and reception often explain the wider significance. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—2020, 2009, 2010—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with Moon, Chosen and studio providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Man on the Moon III: The Chosen”, the useful work is to connect “2020 studio album by Kid Cudi” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

Attribution, date and provenance are strongest when supported by the original work, a catalogue record and documented transmission. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 8, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q104010556. The first chronological checks are 2020, 2009 and 2010.

Critical limits

Later fame can flatten the distinction between original context, subsequent adaptation and institutional collecting history. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.

Best used for
  • Identifying works and editions
  • Tracing reception history
  • Finding collection records
Verify next

The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Man on the Moon III: The Chosen”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Man on the Moon III: The Chosen primary sources, Man on the Moon III: The Chosen archive and Moon research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Man on the Moon III: The Chosen”?
  2. How did later circulation or interpretation alter the work’s reception?
  3. Where is authorship, date or provenance documented?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Man on the Moon III: The Chosen” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.