Rap Radar

Thugs changes, love changes, and now, best friends have become strangers. Minutes after Kid Cudi’s Complex cover feature hit the net, Wale responded to the article via his Twitter account. Let the battle begin.

There’s no telling when Sheek’s Donnie Def Jam: Guerrilla Warfare Vol. 1 mixtape will see the light of day, but at least his Def Jam debut Donny G has a release date: December 7th. Next month, he and labelmate Ghostface Killah hit the road for a month long tour.

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Ahmir puts down the drumsticks and picks up the pen for his first book, Mommy, What’s A Questlove?. No release date has been set, but the project will feature ?uest’s stories, celebrity encounters, and personal thoughts on life. Give the writer some.

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Kid Cudi covers the front of Complex’s October/November 2010 issue. The entire feature is ready to read here, but in the excerpt below, he discusses his affiliation with that white girl and Wale.

Complex: How heavy did the drug use get?
Kid Cudi: I started doing cocaine to get through interviews, ’cause people wanted to know a lot about my personal life and I wasn’t prepared for a 60 Minutes interview every time. Doing bumps I was able to get through the day, but then I would smoke weed to calm me down—it was the only way I could get through the day without people noticing I was doing it.

Did you ever feel like you had a problem?
Kid Cudi: I never thought it was a problem, but I was definitely high-fiving death a couple of times. It took a lot for me to talk about shit like this on the album. I don’t feel like I need to explain myself to anyone besides the fans. My fans don’t believe shit until they hear me say it. And those are true Kid Cudi fans. I want them to know the story.

…Speaking of Wale, when you hit that fan at your show last December, he came out with a line about it ["Throwin' 'round wallets like the dude that Kid Cudi hit," from "Thank You Freestyle"].
Kid Cudi: It wasn’t a shot, it’s just a simple-ass rhyme by a simple-ass rapper. You can’t let that shit faze you. That’s one of those raps that just shows the world that you wack. Why would you even use that as a metaphor? Everybody think they Hov. Niggas ain’t got the magic like they think they do; there’s only a couple of wizards in this game. I’m a wizard and I know it.

Are your peers not seeing that?
The last album, I let people dis me, throw out those jabs in their verses and have their little slick remarks. This time around, I’m not fucking around. I have no time to think about other niggas. These other motherfuckers like feeding off another nigga’s energy, so they mention their name. You hear me talk about niggas? I don’t even talk about Kanye, and that’s my homeboy! They talk about Kanye like they’re bosom buddies with this nigga. Talking about “I be in Hawaii”—man, shut the fuck up, why you got to tell everybody everything? Then people like Wale get mad that ‘Ye ain’t give him no beats—’Ye ain’t give you no beats because we ain’t fucking with your raps. It’s not a conspiracy theory. We don’t fuck with you musically, so we’re not going to provide music for you. The shit is a service, it’s a quality of a certain standard. Niggas are just so thirsty it’s ridiculous. I’ve been eating humble pie forever, and people still call me an asshole. These people don’t know my fucking life—now I’m going to give them something to talk about.

During Fabolous’ Rap Fix Live stream, he says the folks over at Twitter Inc. approached him about creating a coffee table book of his trending topics. Sounds interesting, but nothing tops Kramer’s publishing venture. Ha!

Who else but Mr. What Else to hop on the Last Train To Paris and ride along with Dirty Money and Drake’s recent collab. Nothing to love more here though.

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According to TMZ , ecstasy and marijuana weren’t the only things discovered during T.I. and Tiny’s arrest two weeks ago. Reports indicate traces of codeine were found in the Styrofoam cups pictured above. The rapper also tested positive for opiates the day he was arrested. Hey, maybe he had a cold?

Busta Rhymes and Fabolous weren’t the only ones rocking with the 400 Club this past Labor Day Weekend. Chris Brown performed his comeback single at LUX nightclub in Miami. Peace!

Backstage at the Home and Home concerts, Alchemist tells Sway that Prodigy will be released from Mid-State Correctional this February. P was sentenced to three and half years in 2008 for weapons possession.

“P comes home in February. It’s gonna be a very busy time. It’s amazing. He feels like he’s home already. He’s in the best health he’s been in. He’s really excited. I’ve been sending him beats. Havoc is sending him beats. I e-mail them to his wife, and she puts it on some type of cassette. It’s like he’s in the studio, he’s just not recording.”

Clifford Harris ditches the orange suit and puts on his finer suit for the Fall issue of YRB magazine. Behind the scenes during the photo shoot below.

Sidebar: Say hello to the judge soon.