NEWS
Kid Cudi performs "Tequila Shots" on 'Saturday Night Live' April 10, 2021.
Will Heath/NBCKid Cudi opened up about his friendship with late designer Virgil Abloh in a series of posts on Wednesday (Dec. 1), in which he shared his thoughts on the pioneering fashion figure, as well as the final texts the two shared before Abloh’s death from cancer on Nov. 28.
“It’s taken me a few days to make this post. Tryna find the right words,” Cudder wrote on Instagram alongside a series of photos of the two together and the rapper wearing some of Abloh’s Louis Vuitton designs on stage. “Virgil was the kindest most warmest soul I’ve ever met. He was a true visionary, genius, disrupter, epic DJ and artist, but he was also just truly a beautiful human. I’ve never known anyone quite like him. And I know i never will. Once in a lifetime.”
The second part of the post featured a heartfelt dedication to Abloh, who Cudi thanked for “being a true friend and always makin me feel special when u sent a text, made time for me to hang or sent some shoes w my name on them. I love you endlessly. Til we meet again my friend. I hope u see what you’ve done. You changed the world forever. You did that. I love you Virgil. Goodbye my friend.”
Cudi, who walked in this week’s Louis Vuitton Spring/Summer 2022 show — where he performed his song “Moon” — also shared the pair’s final text exchange from last week. “I’m glad I got to tell u how I felt about u,” he tweeted. “Im happy u didn’t leave here not knowing. I love you Virg FOREVER.”
In the text exchange included below that note, the friends casually talked about the show, with Cudi writing, “Miami gon be a feature film n—a!,” with Abloh responding, “MAJORRRRRR… action movie.” A few days later, Cudi had more on his mind, adding, “Yo willis whats good! Wanted to connect w u about the show and see what u had in mind for me to wear. Im gettin my hair colored today and wanna have a color that goes w the fit… Hope u had a great thanksgiving w the fam!! So thankful to have u in my life. Love u brother.”
Abloh shared the love, responding, “Mad love for you my G… Did you get a fitting time yet?”
Fashion house Louis Vuitton’s first-ever U.S. fashion show was a somber, whimsical tribute to Abloh, just days after his death. The Miami menswear event, an unofficial kickoff to the prestigious Art Basel fair, had been in the works for months and guests including Kim Kardashian West and her daughter North, Ye, the rapper formerly known as Kanye West, model Bella Hadid, Joe Jonas, Maluma and Pharrell, arrived in sleek LV monogrammed silver speedboats. Cudi and Erykah Badu performed at an after-party.
See Cudi’s posts and video of his performance below.
NEWS
No matter what you thought of the Kendrick Lamar and Drake battle, there was only one undisputed winner by the end of it all: the reaction community in the worlds of streaming and YouTube. Your favorite content creators broke down the bars, reacted to all the most shocking moments, and helped this showdown become one of hip-hop's most culturally significant and resonant moments in a long time... For better or worse. See, the battle's technically not over yet, but only because the 6ix God's idea of victory is clearly quite different. In his federal defamation lawsuit against Universal Music Group – his label – for releasing K.Dot's "Not Like Us," he named various content creators who allegedly helped boost the track's widespread popularity and, as a result, its supposedly defamatory nature.
Furthermore, the specific allegation that Drake brings up in this highly controversial lawsuit is that UMG "whitelisted" copyright claims for YouTubers, streamers, etc. concerning "Not Like Us." This means that they would be able to monetize their content without facing a copyright claim from UMG over "Not Like Us," and this isn't really an allegation because various creators have backed this up. But a few important (alleged) caveats that people are talking about online need to be clear. First, "whitelisting" supposedly happens on behalf of a record label behind a song like the West Coast banger, and UMG is instead the distributor of that track. Secondly, as rapper and online personality ScruFaceJean brings up as seen in the post below, tracks like "Push Ups" were also "whitelisted" by its team.
Along with Jean, many other of your favorite content creators spoke out against this Drake lawsuit. Zias! and B.Lou, for example, spoke with their lawyer about the possibility of countersuing for emotional distress, as they found the Toronto superstar's accusations and his implication of them very disturbing and misguided. NoLifeShaq also dragged The Boy through the mud, calling him "soft" and positing that, whether "whitelisting" happened or not, they would react to "Not Like Us" accordingly as they did to his own tracks.
In addition, it's important to bring up that many others fans have pointed to how Drake excitedly used streamers to generate hype and reaction clips for his own diss tracks against Kendrick Lamar. The most direct example is with Kai Cenat, whom he texted to "stay on stream" before dropping "Family Matters." Ironically, the Twitch giant appears in this clowned-upon defamation lawsuit as an example of what the OVO mogul's accusations and implications are. And one more thing: there is no direct link between monetization and algorithmic boosting on sites like YouTube. With all this in mind, content creators seem to feel almost insulted at the idea that they only reacted to the two biggest rappers in the world beefing with each other because one of them would allow them to make money. If Drizzy knew the first thing about the reaction community, maybe he wouldn't have included this...
