When Kid Cudi announced his Moon Man’s Landing festival in mid-June, superproducer, instrumentalist, and blunt god Mike Dean was one of an elite pack of 13 acts. Set for Sept. 17, Cudi will headline and welcome Playboi Carti, Pusha-T, Jaden Smith, Haim, Don Toliver, 070 Shake, and more to Cleveland.
But Dean—who’s opening on The Weeknd’s tour and significantly contributed to Beyoncé’s dazzling Renaissance—says he’s no longer on the lineup, tweeting Wednesday evening, “Looks like I won’t be playing moon man’s landing this year. Someone cancelled me. Lol. Thanks. That’s all. #immature.” On Instagram he shared the tweet and captioned it “#nocomment🖕.”
Asked if he meant “cancel culture canceled,” Dean laughed it off and said the situation is “just some baby kid baby shit.”
Cudi has yet to speak on the matter. Though Dean is still on the flier on the fest’s homepage and lineup page, the seven-time Grammy winner says in actuality he is “not in the lineup” anymore, and that he’s the only performer affected by the change-up.
Though Dean didn’t say anything specifically about Kid Cudi—who publicly ended his working relationship with one of Mike’s biggest collaborators, “fuckin’ dinosaur” Kanye West, in April—he did reply to a fan declaring “Cudi petty for this,” revealing he canceled a solo concert to do the fest. He also liked tweets reading “Mike dean > > > Kid cudi” and “Lmao wasn’t [Cudi] just crying because kanye did this to him over pete? how hypocritical.”
Amid the Moon Man’s Landing–centric posts, the 57-year-old told fans, “I’m off the regular mike dean artist rotation. Planting same crops every year gets stagnant. And boring to be honest.” He returned a few hours later with a to-the-point, all-caps “u played yourself.”
Dean produced much of the Kids See Ghosts record as well as Cudi’s Passion, Pain & Demon Slayin’ and his latest album, 2020’s Man on the Moon III: The Chosen.
