Kid Cudi Unbothered by Criticism He Received for Wearing Floral Dress on 'Saturday Night Live'
Albert L. Ortega/Getty Images Kid Cudi
Kid Cudi stunned in a spaghetti-strap, floral-print dress on Saturday Night Live in April―and thanks to Kurt Cobain, the rapper mapped out this idea years in advance.
The late Nirvana lead singer famously donned a dress of similar style in 1993 on the cover of the magazine The Face. That was enough to inspire the Grammy Award-winning rapper's outfit for his SNL performance of "Sad People."
"The image of seeing Kurt Cobain in a dress was very rock 'n' roll to me," Cudi said on the latest episode of HBO's The Shop: Uninterrupted. "That was cool. 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."
Cudi was criticized by some for his outfit selection in wake of his appearance on SNL. But he has found a way to brush it off.
"I'm more like, 'Hmm, I wonder why they feel that way,'" Cudi said on the show.
"I've never been someone who's, like, thinking about the backlash." he added. "I don't give a f— about what anyone thinks. You can't when you're doing this s—. I knew it would p— some people off, but I love that. Because hip-hop is so weird about s—."
Let us all strive to be as unbothered as @KidCudi ???♂?
The Shop: Uninterrupted is now streaming on @hbomax ?? pic.twitter.com/nNQdriOL57— UNINTERRUPTED (@uninterrupted) June 26, 2021
Earlier in the program, Cudi wore a green cardigan similar to the one worn by Cobain during Nirvana's 1993 MTV Unplugged concert over a shirt honoring late SNL comedian Chris Farley, who died in 1997, while performing his track "Tequila Shots."
Ultimately, the sweater didn't draw nearly as much ire as the dress. But Cudi was not bothered by the controversy around his choice of clothing for his late-night performance.
Instead, he laughed it off.
"I've already seen people making YouTube videos where they're just strictly talking about me and this dress," he said. "Like grown men, angry, grown Black men, angry. 'He's doing something against men and masculinity, it's a big thing going on…' And I just be like, 'Yo, this is so funny, this is crazy that I've stirred it up like this.'"
The Shop: Uninterrupted is available to stream on HBO Max.
