In a tweet this week, Kid Cudi clarified that his upcoming appearance on Pusha T’s album, which also features West, will be his last collaboration with the G.O.O.D. Music founder.
“Hey! So I know some of you heard about the song I got w Pusha. I did this song a year ago when I was still cool w Kanye. I am not cool w that man. He’s not my friend and I only cleared the song for Pusha cuz thats my guy. This is the last song u will hear me on w Kanye,” he wrote, before signing off with his first name, Scott.
It’s Almost Dry, executive produced by both Ye and longtime collaborator Pharrell Williams, comes out on Friday and the song in question is called “Rock N Roll.” Cudi appears the first major artist to completely disavow his relationship with West publicly.
Luckily as spring has sprung, the saga of Kanye West coming undone at the tail end of winter has gone dormant. For months, he just kept popping up in the conversation — always adding something a bit off, if not downright ugly. Most of the drama surrounded his inability to digest his ex-wife Kim Kardashian’s new romance with comedian Pete Davidson. Cudi has been a longtime friend and collaborator with Ye, but caught strays in February as a result of his rapport with Davidson.
“Just so everyone knows Cudi will not be on Donda because he’s friends with you know who,” West said on Instagram in a now-deleted post. Cudi clapped back on Twitter, “Too bad I don’t wanna be on ur album u f—in dinosaur hahaha...Everyone knows I’ve been the best thing about ur albums since I met u. Ima pray for u brother...We talked weeks ago about this. You’re whack for flipping the script and posting this lie just for a look on the internet. You ain’t no friend. BYE.” West took to Instagram again to say, “I JUST WANTED MY FRIEND TO HAVE MY BACK THE KNIFE JUST GOES IN DEEPER,” alongside an old photo of West, Cudi, Davidson and Timothee Chalamet with an ‘X’ over Davidson’s face.
The two have had their share of disputes over the years. In 2016, Cudi tweeted a diss to Ye (and Drake) for claiming their musical superiority “while having 30 people [writing] songs for them,” and Kanye responded with disrespectful barbs on stage. The two eventually reconciled, however, memorably hugging at a 2017 show Ye had in Chicago, and releasing the joint album Kids See Ghosts the following year. But this time, Cudi is speaking with a sense of permanence about cutting ties with the artist who signed him nearly 15 years ago. Only time will tell if that will be the case, or if any other artists follow suit.
