Two-time Grammy winner Kid Cudi launched his recording career in 2009 on Kanye West‘s GOOD Music label. His debut album, Man on the Moon: The End of Day, was certified double platinum, igniting a very successful career. However, the 37-year-old rapper admits that he could not handle stardom and, eventually, became depressed and suicidal for five years.
Cudi, born Scott Mescudi, remembers that when West called him “the most important artist of the past 10 years” during a concert in Houston, it helped him escape his depression.
“My mom was visiting me,” Cudi tells the Los Angeles Times. “And [she] came up to me and was like, ‘Look at this.’ And it was Kanye in concert. I started bawling my eyes out. Like I just started weeping like a big baby. Because we had fallen out and there was beef. But that’s my brother. I just kind of realized in that moment … I realized that he really loved me.”
Cudi’s emotional story is told in the new Amazon Prime Video documentary, A Man Called Scott, which premiered Friday
It includes testimonials from West, Pharrell Williams, A$AP Rocky, Jaden and Willow Smith, and Lil Yachty.
Cudi also appears in the film, Don’t Look Up, opening December 10, starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Jennifer Lawrence, Meryl Streep, Jonah Hill, Tyler Perry, Cate Blanchett and Chris Evans.
Last week, he received a nomination from the Hollywood Music in Media Awards for On Screen Performance for the song “Just Look Up” that he recorded with Ariana Grande for the film. Cudi is also nominated in the Feature Film Category for his song, “Guns Go Bang” with Jay-Z, from The Harder They Fall.
Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.