Why Does Kid Cudi Have Beef With Childish Gambino?

2024 has been beef season in the rap world but while everyone from Ice Spice to The Weeknd is embroiled in some type of feud or another (and Drake is somehow embroiled in at least five at the same time) at least one artist out there doesn’t want smoke with anybody, least of all the guy who seems to have it out for him the worst. During a recent live stream, Donald Glover invited Kid Cudi to have a conversation with him to hash out their issues, saying “I’m not here for the beef.” But why does Kid Cudi have beef with Childish Gambino in the first place?

The origin of their issues is unclear; in an interview last year, Glover recalled being booed while opening for Cudi on tour back when they were both still relatively new artists. However, neither had ever publicly intimated any discord existed between them until a fan suggested the two collaborate on a project on Twitter in February, or at least release their song “Warlords,” which leaked online but hadn’t received an official release date. In response, Cudi quoted back, “Im cool.”

Fans immediately thought that the pair had some sort of friction, but in reality, it could be as simple as Cudi being focused on his own projects — which do technically compete with Glover’s. Cudi has a full slate of work coming up, from his Insano tour to a new album along with a bunch of film and television projects still in the works. It could be just a predilection for pugilism, as some fans think; just this past January, Cudi had a heated back-and-forth with Lupe Fiasco.