*Rapper Kid Cudi is speaking out about his mental health and battle with anxiety and depression.
“When we’re young, we face a lot of pressure to do things that harm us. We pretend to be happy when there’s a raging violent storm inside of our heart,” Kid Cudi says in a new video premiering on PEOPLE. “Once it was difficult for me to find the words. Anxiety and depression ruled my life for as long as I could remember. I was scared, I was sad, I felt like a damaged human swimming in a pool of emotions.”
His remarks come ahead of the Well Beings virtual town hall event this week.
“I knew I deserved peace and to be happy, but I didn’t know how,” he shares. “It took me a while to get to this place of commitment, to say I’m gonna get through this. To know that we can take our pain and turn it into something.”
“I turn my pain into music,” Kid Cudi says. “And my music is how I am different. And my difference is my power.”
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So be fearless. Do what u feel. Trust me. It will lead u on a great path of self discovery and healing and growth. Theres so much to do and see in this life. Explore and go for it. Thats all I do.
— The Chosen One (@KidCudi) July 12, 2020
The rapper first publicly shared his struggles with mental illness in a Facebook letter posted in 2016.
“I am not at peace,” he wrote at the time. “My anxiety and depression have ruled my life for as long as I can remember and I never leave the house because of it … Its time I fix me. I’m nervous but I’mma get through this.”
After rehab, Kid Cudi spoke to Billboard about finding peace. “I have so much joy that I don’t feel like I’m fighting anymore,” he said in a 2018 interview. “It was this year, around my birthday [in late January]. I’m the best I’ve ever been in my life. I realized I was genuinely happy, and there’s nothing really going on in particular.”
“Creating is making me happy again,” he added.
Kid Cudi is scheduled to participate in the Well Beings virtual town hall on July 14 at 11 a.m. ET.
The event be live-streamed on wellbeings.org
In related news, earlier this week, Cudi and Eminem dropped their first collaboration titled “Adventures of Moon Man & Slim Shady.”
The hip-hop star credits Lil Wayne for making the project possible.
After Em was a featured guest on Weezy’s Apple Music show in May, Cudi decided to reach out to the Detroit rapper.
“Well it’s crazy because your interview kind of set it off, right?” Cudi said during a recent episode of Weezy’s Young Money Radio. “I had the record and I just was like, ‘Man, let’s send it to him. The worst that could happen is, he doesn’t f–k with it, and then at the end of the day, I won’t be mad about it.'”
Listen to the track below:
