KiD Cudi, in collaboration with Complex and Augor, covers the August/September issue of the magazine. This marks the first time the emcee has truly opened up; about his life back in Detroit, some of his experiences before and after becoming ‘KiD CuDi, and his musical projects.

On repeating the success of “Day N Nite”:
I was briefly, and then I started to record and just make shit. That’s when I realized I’m going to be OK. Shit is going to come together as it should, don’t worry about it. I didn’t come in the game to just do that one joint, you know what I mean? I came in the game to have multiple hits.

On some of the distractions since his success:
Yeah. Most of my groupies are spawns of the devil. [Laughs.] They’re there to take me off track and fuck up my purpose. It’s like the dark side is trying to pull me in. Who wouldn’t like a bunch of hot-ass bitches saying, “Hey, we all wanna fuck you right now!”? [Laughs.] But you have to realize that it’s an illusion, that you can get caught up, turn into a person that you never knew you could be—and I don’t wanna be that dude.

On being labeled as Kanye’s sidekick:
[Laughs.] The album will shut a lot of people up. I actually have my own voice, and people will see that with the album. ’Ye just lets me be a man and shit. You don’t necessarily want a motherfucker to be holding your hand the whole time. There was a time when nobody listened to my shit and nobody would give me the time of day. Now I’ve got like four fan-made mixtapes—I’ve only got one mixtape out, the rest of them are from fans. Fans make these Kid Cudi wallpapers and draw pictures of me and all this and that. That shit is real; that means that kids connect with that shit. Not just because I’m Kanye’s artist. Those kids fuck with my music and that’s the realest shit ever. That lets me know that I’m important, and nothing is better than knowing you’re important. [READ MORE]

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