Scott “Kid Cudi” Mescudi and Kenya Barris are changing the world of animation with their new Netflix series.
Unlike any animated special you’ve ever seen before, “Entergalatic” brings Mescudi’s eighth studio album of the same name to life with an imaginative musical love story – which follows neighbors turned lovers Jabari (Mescudi) and Meadow (Jessica Williams ) as they navigate the twists and turns of their budding romance in New York City. It features an A-list of animated famous faces, including Timothée Chalamet, Vanessa Hudgens, Teyana Taylor, Jaden Smith and Ty Dolla $ign, as well as songs from Mescudi’s album, all of which he recorded before calling on his co-creator, Barris, to shape his latest vision.
“Scott did me an incredible favor for my daughter who was so sweet and who is Scott.”
Barris tells POPSUGAR that his joint venture with Mescudi started with an act of good faith on the part of the “Day ‘n’ Nite” rapper. “Scott did me an incredible favor for my daughter who was so sweet and who is Scott,” he says. “With [no strings attached], he came to talk to the Black Student Union about my daughter. She never asks me anything, and she said, ‘Can you ask Scott [to come speak]?’ So he came, and these meetings are usually 15 people – [that one] had 1,500. Just watching it struck me as if I knew Scott’s music, but not the effect he had on youth.”
“People think he’s 20, but he keeps reinventing himself, and he’s so specific and in his own way.”
Barris says the years-long process it took to create “Entergalactic” made him even more in awe of his “forward-thinking” collaborator. “He became my brother,” the “Black-ish” creator shares. “We work on other things together, and I’ve learned so much…Scott is a perfectionist. He listens to things, he hears things, and he talks about how to make things full…People think he’s 20 years old, but he keeps reinventing himself, and he’s so specific and in his own lane. And I learned a lot from that too. You stay in your lane and figure that out, and it becomes ageless because it becomes what you do.”
Compared to his previous albums, Mescudi took a totally different approach with his double project “Entergalactic”. The rapper originally envisioned his new album as some sort of anthology set in a different universe until Barris convinced him to turn it into an animated special. From there, the inspiration behind the boy lover’s music in “Entergalactic” set the tone for what would soon become Mescudi’s ambitious visual album project.
Williams shares that she was “really thrilled” to work with Mescudi on “Entergalactic.” Already a fan of his music, the actor says signing on to the project was “a no-brainer”. “It’s the first long-term animation project I’ve done, so it took about 1,000 years to do,” she jokes. “…We were all in separate rooms at different times – [Cudi] was in New Zealand, I was in London. But it was really exciting because nothing was really done when I started recording Meadow, and I think it just grew over time.”
“Entergalactic” draws viewers in with its stylized animation that literally brings its cast to life, but the infectious music is the real main event. According to Barris, the TV special has enough layers that viewers need to watch it at least “five or six times” because there are “hidden Easter eggs”, “songs” and more” things you might see differently”. He adds, “Just like you go to a museum and look at a work of art and the first time you walk past it you see something different, that’s what we want it to be.”
“Entergalactic” is now streaming on Netflix.