Kid Cudi is hip-hop’s alternative cool kid. Akin to artists such as Tyler, The Creator and Childish Gambino, Cudi’s music doesn’t quite align with the standard sonic of rap music, yet he is still embraced and loved within the culture. His material is unique and draws on so many different styles it is impossible to label it. It merely exists.
Kid Cudi (real name Scott Mescudi) came to the attention of Kanye West when they met by chance at a Virgin record shop Mescudi worked at. Here, he gave West his demo. Initially, nothing came of it. However, he ended up meeting Kanye again in 2007 while working at a BAPE store in Manhattan.
Shortly after his encounter with Kanye, in late 2008, the emcee uploaded his single ‘Day ‘N’ Nite’ to MySpace. The song began to accrue an unfathomable amount of downloads, and, as a result, Mescudi was featured as an exciting up-and-coming artist on several music blogs. Word about Cudi quickly got to Kanye, and shortly after, in 2009, West decided to sign Cudi to his Def Jam imprint G.O.O.D Music.
The two artists have been close friends ever since. However, Cudi has somewhat of a cult following and, unlike many artists, seems completely unscathed by trends, numbers and accolades. He instead focuses purely on his art and, as such, produces outstanding bodies of work. However, one publication that wrote about him caught his attention, and it’s fair to say the lyricist was not happy about what was being written about him.
In 2020, Kid Cudi collaborated with the iconic Eminem for a standalone single entitled, ‘The Adventures of Moon Man & Slim Shady.’ Mescudi was extremely happy with the way Eminem had performed on the track and on Lil Wayne’s Young Money Radio, thanked the Detroit emcee, exclaiming, “Yo bro, you fucking destroyed this shit.”
However, the British music publication NME picked up on the story interpreting his use of the word “destroyed” as negative. The magazine proceeded to run a piece entitled, “Kid Cudi Admits He Wasn’t Happy With His Eminem Collaboration At First.”
Mescudi angrily responded to the piece and scolded the publication, tweeting, “Never said this, and I’m not sure how yall came up w it, was clearly excited about my feature. Never once said I was unhappy about it, nor did my energy suggest that. So to NME, get ur shit together and stop spreading LIES.” After being put in their place by Cudi, NME removed the story from its website. You can hear the track below and view Cudi’s rage-filled tweet.
