Key Takeaways
- Kid Cudi overcame his fear of heights to reunite with Kanye West on Ye's 50-foot-high globe stage at Chicago’s Soldier Field.
- Cudi said his fear disappeared once the performance began, calling the moment with his "big bro" magical and saying he felt proud as he grew more comfortable onstage.
- The show marked their first performance together in seven years after a 2022 falling-out, and Cudi has defended rebuilding their nearly two-decade friendship despite public criticism.
Kid Cudi has revealed that he was so excited about reuniting with Kanye West at a show in Chicago earlier this month that he totally bypassed an obstacle that might have got in the way of the reunion.
On the latest episode of his Big Bro podcast, Cudi sat down with actor and comedian Kym Whitley. During the chat, they got onto the subject of his onstage reunion with his former G.O.O.D. Music boss at Soldier Field, discussing in particular Ye's elaborate globe stage that sits somewhere around 50-feet in the air.
"When he asked me to come, I said, 'Oh, this is great. We've been reunited. Haven't performed with him in 7 years. This is great,' Cudi explained. "After 24 hours, I woke up one day and I was like, 'Wait a minute. This not performing on no regular stage. He's performing on an earth that's 50-feet up in the sky. I have a fear of heights.' I was so shook."
But despite being scared of heights, Cudi said the once he got present to the moment and how important it was for him and for the culture, it erased the fear.
"As soon as I got up there, the fear that I had went away because of the moment," he said. "I'm looking out cautious at first, right? But as the performance kept going, I got a little bit more loose and started moving a little bit more and doing more things with my hands and walking around the stage a little bit more, and I was so proud of myself because I was so scared before this."
He concluded: "I got up there, and then it was like I was not scared 'cause I was just like, 'I'm up here with my big bro, and we're having this moment.' And it was just magical."
The Solider Field performance was Kid Cudi and Kanye West's first performance together in seven years, closing a gap that opened with their 2022 falling out after Ye cut Cudi's contributions from "Donda 2." Over the summer, Cudi said the two were rebuilding their friendship.
He has spent the weeks since defending that choice. When Peter Rosenberg said he was disappointed, Cudi answered directly on social media.
"I understand ur frustration Peter, I fucks w u, but I dont really care if ur disappointed in me. That man is my brother. U dont have a relationship w him like I do. Damn near 2 decades of art and friendship. U not family," he wrote, adding that he held Ye accountable and that the apology he got was sincere.
Then came Ebro Darden, who aired details of a private Cudi and Ye conversation on his radio show. Cudi shut that down, too.
"I also wanna be clear, whatever Ebro said is not the words that came out of my mouth... People want to know details about me and Ye, I get it, but im not runnin my mouth about personal things to strangers. Everything we spoke about was stuff the public already knows," he said. The two later squashed it, though Cudi told fans to take future claims about him with a grain of salt unless they hear it from him.
Ye's tour picks back up October 24 in Jakarta, Indonesia.
