Music industry relationships can be especially fickle. T-Pain said it best in his interview with Shannon Sharpe, “Nobody is your brother. Everybody’s your brother while they can use you. That is the quickest and the most consistent thing that I’ve learned through this whole thing.” This has been the case for Wale in some of his relationships with fellow artists. One in particular with Kid Cudi eventually devolved into ugly beef. Nowadays, he’s trying to let that hurt go.
Recently, the D.C. rapper spoke on Boardroom Talks, where he looked back on his professional and personal relationship with Kid Cudi. Today, he doesn’t really talk to the Cleveland crooner, but there’s no resentment there either. All of it stemmed from bitter comments Cudi made to Complex back in 2010. “Then people like Wale get mad that ‘Ye ain’t give him no beats—’Ye ain’t give you no beats because we ain’t fucking with your raps,” Cudi says at the time. “It’s not a conspiracy theory. We don’t fuck with you musically, so we’re not going to provide music for you.”
Afterwards, Folarin was particularly scorned. Cudi was someone he considered to be a good friend in the industry. Moreover, the comments came at a particularly vulnerable time in his life, causing his words to sting that much more. “We used to run together… and you going to say something like that to Complex, which is kind of like my direct fan base? That joint fucked me up… like it really did,” Wale recalls.
Wale Explains His Old Beef With Kid Cudi
Still, he tried to patch things up with Cudi. The “Ambition” rapper retells a time when The Man on the Moon artist called him while he was at Rick Ross’ house. This caused Ross to encourage a collab, something they eventually agreed on. Consequently, Cudi sent vocals from his phone to be used for what would eventually be “Focused“. However, he never revises any issues after the fact. It’s the reason why Wale doesn’t perform the song today.
The last moment in the timeline is set around the mid-2010s. Cudi was invited to an event, which he took as another person asking for an industry favor. But his disrespect made Wale so mad, it almost caused a brawl. “He was like, ‘Everybody just wants me to do everything for them,’” he continues. “I was like, let’s fight… like, now it’s not even no industry thing. It’s not even a cold war. You[‘re] this person, and you talking to me like that? Let’s do it.”
Ultimately, resentment set in for Wale. The way he saw it, people were much more charitable to Cudi than to him when they both battled the same issues. It took a long time for Folarin to find peace after the fact. “It was really bad for a couple years… how I felt about him and how I felt about the grace he would get for struggling, and I was going through the same stuff and I ain’t there getting nothing,” he admits. “That joint was boiling my blood.”
The post ‘That Joint F****D Me Up’: Wale Opens up About His Past Issues With Kid Cudi appeared first on VICE.
