Kid Cudi has had enough. He’s tired of Kanye West, he’s tired of the trolls on Twitter, he’s tired of everything.
In a candid interview with Esquire, the Cleveland rapper keeps it real about Kanye.
Cudi and Ye have been connected since 2009 when the Cleveland rapper signed to Ye’s G.O.O.D. Music imprint. Since then, Cudi has appeared on nearly every project of Ye’s. In 2017, the two even made the excellent collaboration album Kids See Ghosts.
While their relationship has been turbulent for the last 13 years, in 2022 it went to a place where they may never be friends again. The two cut ties after Kanye cut Cudi from Donda 2 entirely over his friendship with Pete Davidson who, until recently, was dating his ex-wife Kim Kardashian.
Kid Cudi also left the stage at Rolling Loud Miami because a festival goer threw a bottle at him—probably because Cudi replaced Kanye as a headliner for that time slot.
Throughout the interview, Cudi speaks on multiple topics such as his mental health, his upcoming album, Entergalactic, and other music ventures he has going on.
But his bit on Kanye was especially insane to read.
At one point he says, “Do you know how it feels to wake up one day, look at your social media, and you’re trending because somebody’s talking some shit about you?” he said. “And then you got this person’s trolls sending you messages on Instagram and Twitter? All in your comments? That shit pissed me off. That he had the power to fuck with me that week. That he used his power to fuck with me. That pissed me off… You fucking with my mental health now, bro.”
Clearly, Cudi isn’t happy.
Later on, he went all “you’re not my dad” and said, “I’m not one of your kids. I’m not Kim. It don’t matter if I’m friends with Pete or not friends with Pete. None of this shit had anything to do with me. If you can’t be a grown man and deal with the fact that you lost your woman? That’s not my fucking problem. You need to own up to your shit like every man in this life has. I’ve lost women, too. And I’ve had to own up to it. I don’t need that in my life. I don’t need it.”
Cudi also wants to clear up the claims that Kanye is 100 percent responsible for his career success. Despite what some people may think, Cudi was an up-and-coming star in rap before Kanye ever came into the picture. His classic mixtape A Kid Named Cudi was being bumped in my headphones before the two even linked up.
“I just want to clear that up for anybody that feels like Kanye made my career or made me who I am,” he said. “He brought me on to do 808s [& Heartbreak]. I thought that was really fucking awesome. I wanted to be a part of a family and saw G.O.O.D. Music as that opportunity. So I finally said yeah. Kanye West did not come and pluck me out of Applebee’s or the Bape store.”
He later added, “I’ve been on every one of that man’s albums. He’s only been on two of mine. That should tell you something…And don’t think I didn’t ask.”
Damn Kanye, you put this man on every one of your albums but didn’t want to give him any verses for his? Despite how messed up that is, it sounds like something Kanye would do.
Cudi also used the interview to throw some shade at Drake, claiming, “With all due respect, I’m not Drake, who’s about to take a picture with him next week and be friends again, and their beef is squashed. That’s not me. What I say, I mean. I will be done with you. It’s gonna take a motherfucking miracle for me and that man to be friends again. I don’t see it happening. He gon’ have to become a monk.”
Kanye a monk? This might sound crazy, but I could actually see it happening.
The Drake shade was a reference to the two teaming up for the #FreeLarryHoover benefit concert after weeks of a petty social media beef.
What I took away from this whole interview is to leave Kid Cudi alone. Let that man live and make music in peace, without the burden of having Kanye as a friend.