Making the right career moves can be tricky when your business partners have also become close friends, so Kid Cudi was naturally nervous about breaking the news to Kanye West that he was ready to part ways from G.O.O.D. Music. Nervous might even be an understatement, as Cudder told that the days leading up to the big phone call were some of the most stressful moments of his life.
"I wanted to make sure that when I spoke to [Kanye] he understood and I didn't say anything that would upset him," Cudi explained. "It's a shot in the dark telling someone what I had to tell him, but I was overthinking it. I was way off. When I got on the phone and talked, within the first five minutes I was like, 'Whew. Holy sh--. That was the most stressful 48 hours ever."
"I overthink sh-- all the time. I'm just emotional," he added, laughing.
Cudi broke the news to fans early in April, saying that he'd even reached out to Jay-Z for advice on how to broach the subject with Kanye, but once it was done with, there were no hard feelings and he and 'Ye still have plans to work together.
"In the last email he sent me, he was just like, 'Yo, come out to Paris and work,' but I gotta go shoot 'Need for Speed' first," he continued. "I'ma handle that and hopefully he's still working because I got some time in between so I might jet out and go check him, play him some beats that I been working on. Now that I know he might need my help I might go in the studio and actually try to make some beats with him in mind and see what comes outta that."
With the G.O.O.D Music days now behind him, Cudi is ready to focus on developing his own label, Wicked Awesome. The next priority will be a solo album from his friend and frequent collaborator King Chip, and then hopefully a little something for his fans by the end of the year.
"I'm gonna try to get this box set out for the holidays," he revealed. "It'll be the whole entire collection — all of my albums — and then I'm probably gonna include five new jams that didn't make the album that I feel like everyone still needs to hear, plus I'll probably do some remixes. I just wanna put out more cool sh-- now that I've got everyone's attention."