The reason why J Cole and Kid Cudi have never worked together: “It was a bummer”
J Cole and Kid Cudi came up in the music industry around the same time, with both of their first projects released in the late 2000s. Despite that, the Fayetteville and Cleveland rappers have never collaborated on a song.
Cudi has apparently reached out to Cole on at least two occasions to make something happen, but things just haven’t aligned; he claims he tried to get him on 2013’s Indicud and 2024’s Insano albums. The ‘Day N Nite‘ rapper took to X (formerly Twitter) to respond to a fan who requested a song between them, claiming they both “give out such great messages” and that it would be the “best collab of all time.” He replied, “I had a session w Cole for Indicud he couldnt write to the beat I produced. It was a bummer, and I always wanted to do something so I reached out for Insano, no response. So there’s that.”
Cudi clarified he has no issues with Cole, replying to another fan, “Cole dope I fux w him.” In another post, he said, “I dont think Cole dislikes me I think he just didnt connect w what I sent him. One day hopefully it happens.”
In 2009, Cole and Cudi were featured on the same Jay-Z album, The Blueprint 3, with Hov recruiting Cole for ‘A Star Is Born’ and Cudi featuring on ‘Already Home’, which were separated on the tracklist by just one song.
Cudi previously revealed he was in the recording studio with Cole in 2012. In a post on X at the time, he wrote, “Studio w my n*gga Cole World today. The alliance.” However, nothing came of the session, which was likely for his Indicud album.
During an interview with Hot 97 in 2010, Cole weighed in on the beef going on between Cudi and Wale. “From the outside looking it, I don’t know a lot about the situation, but it was a let-down,” he said. “You don’t wanna see that happen, especially with two artists who came up in the same era. But I think Wale handled it correctly because everybody expected him to go crazy and blackout with a Twitter rant.”
Both Cole and Cudi, who are aged 39 and 40, are as busy as ever, with each of them dropping new projects in 2024. Cudi released his Insano album in January, which peaked at number 12 on the Billboard 200, followed by another album called Insano (Nitro Mega) in January.
As for Cole, he dropped his Might Delete Later mixtape in April. The album was nominated for Best Rap Album at the Grammys and famously included the song ‘7 Minute Drill’, which saw him diss Kendrick Lamar and later remove the song from streaming platforms. By doing so, Cole excluded himself from the “big three” discussion and paved the way for Kendrick and Drizzy to go back and forth with diss tracks.