At the end of 2020, Kid Cudi released the seventh album in his decade-long career with Man On The Moon III: The Chosen. It’s a career that first gained steam back in 2008 after the success of “Day N Nite,” Cudi’s breakout single. The record originally appeared on his 2008 mixtape A Kid Named Cudi before it was later added to his 2009 debut album Man On The Moon: The End Of Day. “Day N Nite” would also go on to peak at No. 3 on the singles chart. As history and Cudi himself tell it, many of us have credited Kanye West with helping Cudi rise to fame. However, Jim Jones claims that the credit is all his.
In a recent interview with VIP Saturdays on Sirius XM, Jim Jones spoke about being the first big-name artist to appear on “Day N Nite.” Jones also spoke about his first meeting with Cudi. “Kid Cudi was nobody,” Jim Jones said. “He worked in a f*cking store under Koch Records. I was signed to Koch Records. I didn’t even know Kid Cudi worked down there.” He added, “Lisa Brunt’s nephew at the time was doing some work for me in my studio, and he’s like, ‘Yo, I manage these video directors, and I want them to shoot a video for you,’ and sh*t like that. I’m like, ‘Show me the video.’ They showed me the video, ended up being a Kid Cudi video that they shot for free for him.”
Jones continued, “They’re like ‘This is the kid that works in the f*cking rock-n-roll store under Koch. They just did it for him,’ and I was like, ‘Give me the record, and I’ll let y’all shoot me a video.’ They got me the record, they shot the video.”
Jones was then asked how the version of him on “Day N Nite” ended up on HOT 97’s radio airwaves and why he was eventually removed from the song.
“I put it on YouTube. Somebody at Hot97 ripped it off of YouTube and started playing it at Hot97. When he got his deal, they took me off the record and went for ads without me on the record. DJ Cassidy did that, you dig. You know I bumped into him, but that’s my man, though. It’s always a joke, though, but it happens like that. I’m solely responsible for Kid Cudi’s career. You can go tell him that, and he’s going to tell you, ‘He’s right.’”
You can view the clip from the VIP Saturdays interview above.