Kid Cudi’s 2013 album, Indicud, boasted collaborations with ASAP Rocky, Kendrick Lamar and Too Short, as well as the fan-favorite “Just What I Am.” On Wednesday (Sept. 18), the Cleveland native revealed that a J. Cole feature could’ve been on the LP, except the “No Role Modelz” rapper “couldn’t write” to the beat he produced.
In response to a Twitter user asking for a collaboration between the two artists, Kid Cudi said, “It was a bummer, and I always wanted to do something, so I reached out for INSANO [and got] no response. So, there's that.”
The musician’s INSANO arrived in January with a lengthy tracklist and contributions from Lil Yachty, Travis Scott and Pharrell Williams. The following month, he released INSANO (NITRO MEGA), billed as “basically another album” rather than a deluxe.
There doesn’t appear to be any bad blood between the two artists, considering Cole mentioned the “Day ‘N’ Nite (nightmare)” creator on 2021’s “9 5 . s o u t h” from The Off-Season: “My young n**gas nutty, they blastin' / Bullets be hummin' like Cudi, but one of yo' hoodies Spaghetti-O splashin' / All over the driveway, y'all talkin' all sideways.”
It’s also worth mentioning that Kid Cudi was originally set to bring Dreamville Records’ EARTHGANG on his “INSANO WORLD TOUR.” Unfortunately, the entire trek was axed after he sustained a broken foot from jumping off the stage at Coachella in April.
“[I’ve] still got a ways to go, but this was my first time walking in four months, and I was mad happy to see the progress,” the rapper wrote in a recovery update in July. “My mom filmed this video through tears, haha. She was so happy to see me walk again.”
J. Cole, on the other hand, has been on somewhat of a feature run. He lent his voice to Rocky’s “Ruby Rosary” just months after teaming up with Cash Cobain and Metro Boomin and Future on “Grippy” and “Red Leather,” respectively.