Kid Cudi has long been a mental health advocate while publicly fighting his own battles with depression and anxiety throughout his music career, which includes multiple rehab stints.
Cudder is looking to pass the knowledge and insight he’s gained to the next generation as he spent Monday night (June 6) in New York City as a keynote speaker at a dinner for New York-Presbyterian Hospital’s Youth Anxiety Center.
“Before I actually had therapy, the music was there for me,” Cudi said, according to Vogue, who was present for the dinner. “It was the perfect way to express myself and feel safe doing it. I’m always asking my daughter if she’s cool. I’m always checking in with her. That’s important; I feel like that’s good for our connection.”
The Ohio native opened up about how he kept his mental health issues bottled up and smothered as a child since he felt as if he had nobody to turn to.
“It was one of those things where it was just like: How do you come up to Mom who’s dealing with four kids, and your dad died, and she’s taking care of everybody on her own, that you’re dealing with something,” he explained.
Nowadays, Kid Cudi blocks out the outside noise and only seeks acceptance from his 11-year-old daughter, Vada.
“Everything that I’m about, she’s about,” he continued. “This is a taste of the next generation. She accepts me for as wild and rock and roll as I am… At no point has my daughter ever asked me why I paint my nails. She thinks they’re cool. I don’t care what anybody says when my daughter thinks it’s dope.”
On the music side, Cudder is kicking off the rollout of his Enter galactic project on Friday (June 10) with the release of the lead single “Do What I Want.” An accompanying Netflix serried is slated to arrive alongside the album later this year.
