The rapper spoke about his recent controversial attire on the late-night show and imagined what his friend Ye would say about it.
His fans were excited to hear that he would be performing on Saturday Night Live, but Kid Cudi‘s appearance was overshadowed by his choice of attire. He took to the stage wearing a floral dress and later, Cudi revealed the design was a collaboration with Virgil Abloh. It was done in tribute to Kurt Cobain as a nod to the late Nirvana icon’s gender-bending look that he wore at a show back in 1989.
Although Kudi has previously explained why he chose to wear the dress, he expounded on his reasoning during his visit to HBO Max’s The Shop: Uninterrupted. “SNL comes my way, so I immediately thought like, this would be the perfect opportunity to wear a dress. But, do I go to a store and just buy something off the rack? Or do I go get somebody to make me some sh*t?”
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Kudi added that he tried just looking for something that was already for sale, but when nothing grabbed his attention, he decided to hit up Abloh. Within minutes, the two were exchanging prints and ideas. “The image of seeing Kurt Cobain in a dress was very rock n’ roll to me. That was cool,” he said.
“So, I already made my mind up years ago that I wanted to do this, and it’s cool because I’m also giving confidence to the kids and telling them to be themselves and do what they want to do.” He was then asked if any of his peers contacted him after seeing his SNL appearance.
“I don’t know, it’s not like Kanye is gonna hit me up and be like, ‘Oh, that dress was fresh,'” said Cudi as everyone laughed. “But, it’s okay, I know that Kanye sees that and he respects me for it.” Check out a clip of The Shop below and stream the episode on HBO Max.