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Midway through his Friday night performance at the Rolling Loud festival in Miami Gardens, Florida, rapper Kid Cudi was sick and tired of audience members throwing water bottles and other debris at him during his headlining set.
After being hit in the face by a water bottle, Cudi, who was a last-minute replacement for Kanye West, his collaborator-turned-rival who left the festival, had an expletive-laden message to fans : “I’m leaving.” the next time an item hits me or throws me across the stage.
“No [expletive] with me,” the 38-year-old artist said, according to a fan video from the show.
About two seconds later, a bottle went over his head; Cudi dropped the mic and walked off the stage just 30 minutes into his set, to the surprise of the thousands of fans at Hard Rock Stadium. Some booed, while others immediately chanted for West, who now goes by Ye. West finally showed up in a surprise appearance on Friday night, shortly after Cudi left the stage.
Video of the incident went viral, and critics have blasted those in attendance, specifically West’s fans, for disrespecting Cudi during his set.
“Never disrespect Cudi,” Complex Music wrote in a tweet.
A representative for Cudi, real name Scott Mescudi, did not immediately respond to a request for comment early Saturday. Rolling Loud officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Cudi and West had a decorated creative partnership until their public feud earlier this year. After West slammed Cudi on Instagram over his friendship with comedian Pete Davidson, who is dating Ye’s ex-wife Kim Kardashian, Cudi vowed never to work with West again and called him a “dinosaur.”
“You’re so cool to flip the script and post this lie just for the internet to look at,” Cudi tweeted in February. “You are no friend. Goodbye.”
In April, Cudi noted that his and West’s collaboration on rapper Pusha T’s “Rock N Roll” would be the final song featuring the two.
“I made this song a year ago when it was still cool [with] Kanye,” Cudi tweeted. “I’m not cool [with] that man.”
Rolling Loud co-founders Tariq Cherif and Matt Zingler said in a statement this week that they had worked with West and his team on his performance during the first night of the festival until the rapper decided to pull out for reasons that they are still not clear.
“This is the first time a headliner has played our show and while we don’t take it lightly, we wish him the best,” Cherif and Zingler said, according to Pitchfork.
It wasn’t the first time West pulled out of a headlining performance at a music festival this year. He canceled his Coachella performance 11 days before he was due to take the stage, according to Variety. A production and design company sued West this month for $7.1 million, alleging in a California court that the rapper failed to pay them for his canceled Coachella performance or show launch of his album “Donda 2”.
But even with West retiring from Rolling Loud, the co-founders were excited to have Cudi take his place.
“We look forward to welcoming Kid Cudi as a headliner in Miami and can’t wait to see what he has in store,” Cherif and Zingler said in a statement.
Before the show, Cudi expressed his excitement to headline Rolling Loud, tweeting photos of fans eager to see him take the stage.
“Who’s ready for face-melting madness?” he tweeted about 90 minutes before his set.
Cudi was only four songs into his set when bottles and debris started flying, according to fan accounts on social media. As videos of the incident spread on social media, critics slammed fans in attendance for forcing Cudi to end his set early.
“You guys are out here disrespecting Kid Cudi and that shows me you have no home training and no taste in music,” Sports Illustrated host Ashley Nicole Moss tweeted.
Shortly after leaving the stage, rapper Lil Durk brought out a surprise guest during his set: West. Despite pulling out of his set, West took the stage to perform “Father Stretch My Hands, Pt. 1” — a hit featuring Cudi’s vocals.
“This was an interesting first night of #RLMIAMI,” the festival tweeted.