Wale is opening up about years of tension, disappointment, and hurt tied to his relationship with Kid Cudi — a bond he says once felt genuine but eventually left him blindsided and dismissed.
On a candid episode of Boardroom Talks, the D.C. rapper walked through the timeline of their fallout and how deeply it affected him both personally and professionally. According to Wale, things shifted when Cudi publicly took shots at him during a moment when he already felt vulnerable in the industry.
“I don’t talk to Cudi… I don’t harbor nothing, but I really felt like they kicked me when I was down,” Wale said.
He pointed back to Cudi’s remarks in a 2010 Complex cover story, where the interviewer asked about Wale after he referenced Cudi in a song.
“Then people like Wale get mad that ‘Ye ain’t give him no beats—’Ye ain’t give you no beats because we ain’t fucking with your raps,” Cudi said at the time. “It’s not a conspiracy theory. We don’t fuck with you musically, so we’re not going to provide music for you.”
Wale said that hearing those words from someone he once saw as a close peer cut deeper than most criticism.
“We used to run together… and you going to say something like that to Complex, which is kind of like my direct fan base? That joint fucked me up… like it really did,” Wale admitted.
Wale went on to reveal that even when he tried to fix things, the situation never really improved. He recalled being at Rick Ross’ house when Cudi called, and Ross pushed them to reconnect and work together. They agreed, and Cudi sent over what Wale assumed was a rough draft of vocals for a track that would later become “Focused.” But according to Wale, that’s where Cudi’s effort stopped.
“He did the vocals over the phone… and I’m like, ‘We’ll fix it when it gets close to the album.’ But he couldn’t be bothered to fix the vocals properly,” Wale said, adding that the same phone-recorded vocals were used on the final version — which is why he’s never performed the song live.
But the divide stretched far beyond the studio. Wale shared that he invited Cudi to a personal event sometime around 2015 or 2016, and Cudi’s reaction felt like a slap in the face.
“He was like, ‘Everybody just wants me to do everything for them,’” Wale said. “I was like, let’s fight… like, now it’s not even no industry thing. It’s not even a cold war. You’re this person, and you talking to me like that? Let’s do it.”
From there, Wale said resentment built up for years — intensified by seeing Cudi receive widespread compassion for his mental health struggles while he felt he didn’t get the same empathy, despite dealing with similar challenges.
“It was really bad for a couple years… how I felt about him and how I felt about the grace he would get for struggling, and I was going through the same stuff and I ain’t there getting nothing,” he said. “That joint was boiling my blood.”
He added, “Now I’m on some everybody, it’s kumbaya. I ain’t trying to keep harboring these feelings. But I was hot for some time.”
