Kid Cudi Talks Writing Raps For Kanye West & Collaborating With Jay-Z On ‘The Blueprint 3’

Kid Cudi/Apple Music

Scott Mescudi has a long history of working with The Throne.

Kid Cudi is currently the #1 trending topic on Twitter in the United States. The Midwesterner dropping his Man on the Moon III: The Chosen album, as well as the introduction of his new VADAWAM 326 shoes for Adidas, has the rap star trending on the social media platform higher than prominent Pop singer Taylor Swift’s brand new album.

With a new project hitting the internet today (December 11), Cudi took part in an interview with Zane Lowe for Apple Music. The Cleveland-raised rapper and the New Zealand-born music journalist spoke about Man on the Moon III, but other topics came up as well. For example, Lowe asked Cudi about collaborating with longtime musical ally Kanye West.

“When I’m working with Ye, it’s always like, ‘I hope he likes this s###.’ It doesn’t matter how excited I get or the people in the room around me get. If he doesn’t f###### like it, then I got to f###### rewrite it,” admitted Cudi. “But in the whole entire history of me and Kanye West working, I’ve never written something where he’s been like, ‘Rewrite that.’ Never.”

The 36-year-old musician/actor continued, “We bounce ideas and s### even when we were writing on Kids See Ghosts, I would write the verse and he’d take it, read it, and say, ‘All right, cool.’ And record it. And I would just be like, ‘Holy f###. h########, that was close. I just had to f###### write a rap for Ye. Like h########. I’m glad he liked it. He could’ve said this sucks right at the beginning.”

Kanye West is not the only Hip Hop icon that joined together with Kid Cudi on a record. Back in 2009, Jay-Z released The Blueprint 3 album which included the West-produced track “Already Home” with Cudi. The Grammy winner reflected on that collaboration with Yeezy’s Watch The Throne partner.

“I’m working on these beats that he gave me. He gave me about eight beats. He has this one beat that I love. It’s the first beat in the pack that he sent me. And I’m just like, ‘Oh my God, this beat is amazing. This is like the Kanye West beat. Holy f###, I got to do something to this. I got to make something amazing. Like, h########, Jay-Z’s waiting on this.’ So then I’m sitting there, I come up with an idea. I’m out there for maybe all of 10, 15 minutes. Kanye comes out. He’s like, ‘So what you got?’ I’m like, ‘Oh my God,'” Cudi told Lowe.

He added, “I’ve got eight beats he gave me, I only have one idea. And I was just like, ‘Hey, yeah man, I got this one idea. I don’t know if you like it or not, but this is it.’ He’s like, ‘Tell me. Tell me.’ So it was like [singing]. ‘Record that right now. Record that right now.’ I was like, ‘You’re sure?’ ‘Yes, yes, yes. Record it. Let’s go to the studio right now.’ We went in the booth, I recorded it. I’m nervous as s###, but like in the live room, all I see is just people jumping around dancing, going crazy. The response was wild. And I was just in the booth like, ‘Okay. Right. I have to do this a million more times.’ It wasn’t a moment where I was like, ‘Yes, I did it.’ I was like, okay, now I got to do this like a million more times. Every time they come to me, I got to come with that s###.'”