Kid Cudi on why he buried the hatchet with Kanye West after feud

NME

Kid Cudi has opened up on why he forgave Kanye West after their public feud back in 2022.

In August of 2022, the ‘Soundtrack 2 My Life’ singer spoke out about the vitriol he received from West – who now goes by Ye – that year, saying the ‘Donda’ rapper’s online attacks damaged his mental health and irreparably damaged their friendship.

The two artists were previously close friends and collaborators but have had a tumultuous relationship since the mid-2010s. They fell out again that year, allegedly due to Cudi’s friendship with Pete Davidson – West’s ex-wife Kim Kardashian’s ex who she was dating at the time – which led Ye to remove Cudi’s contributions from his ‘Donda 2’ album.

Speaking to Esquire at the time, Cudi said of West: “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.”

At the time Ye shared a mocked-up New York Times headline he created imagining the death of “Skete Davidson” which included the line: “Kid Cudi meant to play funeral but fearful of bottle throwers.”

“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?” Cudi 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.”

Now, in a new interview with Apple Music’s Zane Lowe, Cudi explained that he patched things up with Ye after receiving an apology.

“The reason why we became cool again is because he apologised to me and it was sincere. I was just like, wow, Kanye does not apologise to anybody and say sorry to anyone. And that’s my brother, man. I know he loves me and there’s just nothing like Kanye and Cudi. We like the duo that everybody loves to see,” he said.

The rapper went on to reflect on everything Ye contributed to at the beginning of his career including funding his ‘Day ‘n’ Nite’ music video.

“When it was going down, I wanted to walk away,” he told Lowe. “I wanted to give up, but in thinking about it the past couple years, it’s like this is someone who is my brother ultimately who came into my life and championed me and did things for me that nobody else did for me early on in my career.”

Elsewhere in the interview, Cudi mentioned Ye’s antisemitism controversy in late 2022 and insisted that the ‘Real Friends’ rapper is “a good man”.

“He knows he made some mistakes. It’s like he knows he’s been on one hell of a ride and he knows he’s said some things that he might not be able to come back from in a lot of realms, in a lot of spaces from certain people. But we grow and I think I pray for him, and that’s my brother,” he said.

In other news, Cudi recently erected giant statues of himself in cities around the world as promotion for his new album ‘Insano’.

The LP was released last Friday (January 12), and it includes appearances from ASAP Rocky, Travis Scott, Pharrell Williams, Lil Yachty, Lil Wayne, Young Thug and a posthumous guest feature from XXXTentacion.

Since its release, a giant, 33-foot statue of the rapper popped up in Long Beach, California, after a similar one had done so last week in Paris.

‘Insano’ is Cudi’s ninth studio album and his first since 2022’s ‘Entergalactic’. It marks the final release under his contract with Republic Records, and includes the singles ‘Porsche Topless’ and ‘At the Party’.

The rapper also recently hinted that he was “nearing the end” of his music career, promising one final album of “all new music” before retiring. “Im doin 1 more album and then im done w my deal and not sure what ima do after that but yea, 1 more,” he wrote. “Wont be next year. Keep u posted.”

In December, Cudi also announced his memoir ‘CUDI’, and teased a potential book tour in the future. The book is set to hit shelves in September 2024.

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