Kid Cudi opted to forgo pre-album hype in favor of surprising fans and music critics alike by dropping his album, Satellite Flight: The Journey to Mother Moon, at midnight on Tuesday.

Kid Cudi Drops 'Satellite Flight'

Cudi had been working on an EP before the third installment of his Man on the Moon project. Before long, what was supposed to be an EP turned into a full-length album that Cudi wanted to release unexpectedly. “Tickets to Copernicus Landing will be available for purchase via iTunes in the next 2 hours,” Cudi tweeted Monday night, referring to one of the tracks on the album.

“Time to make the world stand still,” he added, before giving a 1-hour warning, followed by a boarding call to the album on iTunes.

Kid Cudi Talks 'Man On The Moon'

Although Cudi hadn’t revealed any definite release plans, he’s been teasing a full-album release since January. He talked about how Satellite Flight fit in between his projects and how it sets up Man on the Moon III last month to MTV News.

"[Satellite Flight] starts where Indicud left off perfectly, and takes you right into MOTM III,” Cudi told MTV. “It's like a TV show that ends with that cliffhanger. The album ends that way, where you get that one song and before you know it, the song is over and the album is over, but there's a 'to be continued…' There's more to the story."

"I kinda went director on this project," he added, referencing the storyline that he's strung out across different albums. "I had the idea for the first and second [Man on the Moon] albums, with the whole five acts split. Man on the Moon III will go back to that whole breakdown and this comes back to that tradition, with the acts and everything being seamlessly in order."

Satellite Flight: The Journey to Mother Moon is currently available on iTunes and other digital retailers in its entirely. A date for a physical copy has yet to be announced, though the digital version of the album is expected to have bonus tracks.

– Chelsea Regan

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