Rolling Loud got off to a rocky start Friday in Miami as headliner Kid Cudi left the stage mid-set after being bombarded by items thrown by audience members, while Kanye West made a brief appearance during Lil Durk’s performance despite dropping off the lineup less than a week earlier.
Footage posted to social media initially showed Cudi being hit in the face with what appears to be a water bottle while performing. The “Day ‘n’ Nite” rapper is later shown threatening the audience with cutting his set short due to the behavior. “I will fucking leave. If I get hit with one more fucking thing — if I see one more fucking thing on this fucking stage, I’m leaving,” he says. “Don’t fuck with me.” A water bottle is subsequently launched toward the rapper, prompting Cudi to drop his microphone and walk offstage as audience members began to chant West’s name.
JUST IN: Kid Cudi walks off stage after people kept throwing things at him during his Rolling Loud set pic.twitter.com/jy8V62O3mO
— XXL Magazine (@XXL) July 23, 2022
Cudi, somewhat controversially, was chosen to replace West after the Donda 2 rapper pulled out of the festival. (Fans had pressed Rolling Loud organizers to replace West with Travis Scott, leading to a bizarre incident in which one of the festival’s co-founders falsely claimed the event’s venue prohibited Scott from performing due to his association with a fatal crowd surge at his Astroworld festival last year.)
Yet, in true Ye fashion, West still attended the festival, making a surprise cameo onstage with Lil Durk while wearing a full face mask. West performed a segment of his The Life of Pablo track “Father Stretch My Hands, Pt. 1” — a song, fans noted, contains vocals by Cudi.
Kanye West just came out during Lil Durk’s Rolling Loud set 👀pic.twitter.com/8NkEaa92US
— Kurrco (@Kurrco) July 23, 2022
The move appeared to be deliberate, as the two rappers had a public falling out in February when West blasted Cudi for being friends with Pete Davidson. (The former Saturday Night Live star is currently dating West’s ex-wife, kim Kardashian.) “Just so everyone knows Cudi will not be on Donda because he’s friends with you know who,” West wrote in a now-deleted Instagram post.
Cudi responded by calling West a “dinosaur” in reply to the post, before later accusing West of lying in a series of tweets. “God opens the door so the wrong people can exit ur life,” he wrote on Twitter.