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Kid Cudi has always been open about his struggles with mental health. At an event for the New York-Presbyterian Hospital’s Youth Anxiety Center, the rapper opened up even further, adding that his daughter Vada’s approval is top priority for him.
Cudi and Vogue.com editor Chioma Nnadi led the conversation about anxiety, depression, and the importance of self-care and treatment.
The New York-Presbyterian Hospital’s Youth Anxiety Center was founded 11 years ago and hosts a clinical and research program committed to addressing the epidemic of anxiety and depression in youth and adolescents, per Vogue.
“Before I actually had therapy, the music was there for me. It was the perfect way to express myself and feel safe doing it,” the Man on the Moon rapper shared. He added that having lost his father at a young age and as the father of a young daughter, he deeply understands the importance mental health in young people. “It was one of those things where it was just like: How do you come up to Mom who’s dealing with four kids, and your dad died, and she’s taking care of everybody on her own, that you’re dealing with something?,” he said about his childhood, per Complex.
He noted that he always checks in with his daughter about her mental health, “I’m always asking my daughter if she’s cool. I’m always checking in with her,” he said. “That’s important; I feel like that’s good for our connection.”
He added, “At no point has my daughter ever asked me why I paint my nails. She thinks they’re cool,” he said. “I don’t care what anybody says when my daughter thinks it’s dope.”
“Everything that I’m about, she’s about,” Cudi said of Vada. “This is a taste of the next generation. She accepts me for as wild and rock and roll as I am.”
When the rapper appeared on Saturday Night Live last year in a dress as an homage to late Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain, he said that his daughter sent him a message of approval saying, “My daughter [texted] me and said, ‘Daddy you looked so pretty in your dress,’” he said. “That was all I needed. No one else’s opinion mattered.”
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