Kid Cudi is urging his fans to steer clear of hard drugs, opening up about his own struggles as a warning.
On the August 23 episode of the Sally podcast, the Free artist was asked by the French host about “the biggest lie” cocaine made him believe.
“That I was invincible. I was so reckless on that shit… Like, I was living life on the edge,” Cudi admitted around the nine-minute mark.
Reflecting on those days, he added, “And when I look back, it’s so scary to realize that like I was very much so gambling with the devil. And it made me not care whether I lived or died.”
“It just made me feel invincible, like I could take on the world. I’m grateful I made it out of that,” Cudi said. “And you know they always say, ‘There’s no high like the first time you get high,’ and that’s true. The entire time I was on cocaine, I was chasing that first high I never found again.”
Turning his message directly to young fans, he added: “Don’t fuck with that shit. The first high, you’ll get it. Every other high will never feel the same.”
“You’ll spend your whole life chasing that first high,” he warned. “It’ll make you miserable, turn you into a shitty person, ruin your creativity, and mess with your mental health.”
Cudi made it clear: “No one should try hardcore drugs. Don’t try cocaine. Don’t try molly. Don’t try any of that shit. You won’t get anything from it. You’ll end up worse off than when you started. There’s no happy ending to that story. None. It’s just nothing.”
He described drug use as “nothing but darkness,” comparing it to being trapped in the “basement of hell,” a place he said he lived in for years, even as he poured his emotions into his music.
“The public was still getting art from me, but I was truly damaged and tortured inside. That’s what drugs do to you,” he shared. “Even when you stop, they’ll haunt you for years after.”
Though he quit in 2010 following an arrest, Cudi admitted he relapsed in 2016. “There was still a little voice in my head saying, ‘Come on, let’s try it again. Why not? Just take it easy this time,'” he revealed. “Once you let that demon in, he makes a home in your mind. He’ll sit there, waiting for your weakest moment to whisper, ‘Hey, I got answers for you. I can help.'”
He closed with a firm warning: “So, young kids, if you’re watching this, take it from the Rager: Don’t do cocaine. Don’t do molly. Don’t do meth. Don’t do heroin. Stay away. Life isn’t that bad. You don’t need hardcore drugs.”
Earlier this month on CBS Mornings, Cudi opened up about his first overdose in his memoir, recalling how close he came to death. “I had a hard time dealing with fame, and the reason I was doing cocaine was so I didn’t blow my brains out,” he said.
