Grammy-winning hip-hop artist Kid Cudi stopped by The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon on Wednesday night where he promoted his new film Don’t Look Up. Don’t Look Up saw a release back on December 10th and features an all-star cast, including Leonardo DiCaprio, Jennifer Lawrence, Meryl Streep, Jonah Hill, Ariana Grande, and many more.
During the interview, the two talked about the origins of Kid Cudi’s stage name (real name Scott Mescudi). “It’s interesting, my first rap name when I first started—when I was like 15—was Lil Scott ‘cuz … I don’t know I just was a big fan of Lil Wayne at the time.” Cudi explained he “wanted something a little more personal,” so he went with Kid Mesc.
As time went on, however, people kept calling him Kid Mess. “That would really make me upset,” he told Jimmy Fallon, and so “then it went from Kid Mesc to Kid Mescudi. And then it went from Kid Mescudi to Kid Cudi, and I was like, ‘Oh, this works, like, I found it!”
Related: Amazon Releases Trailer For New Kid Cudi Documentary, ‘A Man Named Scott’ [Watch]
Later on in the interview, Cudi reflected on his time spent working as a server at a Cleveland Applebee’s and quipped about tricking customers about his name. He would introduce himself as Trevor and even went as far as making another nametag. “It became such a big thing that people would come on my off days requesting me,” he told Fallon, which evoked a laugh from the host and audience. Before the conversation ended, the two talked about Don’t Look Up, which has helped Cudi garner two Critics Choice Awards nominations for “Best Ensemble Cast” and for “Best Song”.
Watch the Kid Cudi interview including a clip from Don’t Look Up from Wednesday’s episode of The Tonight Show below. Furthermore, head to Fallon’s YouTube page for more clips from each episode.
Kid Cudi Interview – The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon