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Country music has its share of talented biographers: Robert K. Oermann, Barry Mazor and Holly George-Warren, just to name a few. They are able to boil a life in the genre down to a few hundred pages. But not everyone gets that kind of space to document their history. Musicians have been known to convey their experiences in three or four minutes — a challenge, to be sure.
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George Birge, coming off back-to-back Country Airplay hits with “Mind on You” (No. 2, 2023) and “Cowboy Songs” (No. 1, 2024), engaged in that very exercise for his latest single, “It Won’t Be Long.”
“I was ready to take another step as an artist,” Birge reflects. “I found a little bit of a lane of stuff that was working for me. But I also wanted to continue to grow as I got a deeper connection with my fans, and kind of pull back the curtain a little bit more and maybe tell a little bit more of a story and showcase a little bit more in my life.”
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Over the course of 2024, he attempted several times to do that very thing, but none of those efforts seemed to land. That changed during a co-writing session on Oct. 22 at the Liz Rose Music offices in Nashville, where Joe Fox (“Last Night Lonely,” “Breakin’ In Boots”) had a room with a piano. The appointment that day also included Chase McGill (“Next Thing You Know,” “5 Foot 9”) and Trannie Anderson (“Heart Like a Truck,” “Wild Horses and Wildflowers”), writing with Birge for the first time after bumping into him regularly on the golf course. Anderson, it turned out, had an idea they all thought was workable, but before they got too far, McGill felt he should speak up.
McGill’s oldest daughter was a few weeks from turning 7, and just a few days earlier, he had had a discussion with his wife, Kara, about how fast their world seemed to be going. It inspired a hook, “Life might be a lot of things/ But it won’t be long.”
“I instantly was like, ‘That’s it. That’s what I’ve been looking for,’ ” Birge says. “And everybody’s like, ‘If you’re in, let’s chase it.’ ”
Even Anderson, whose idea was scrapped by that turn of events, was up for it. “We wrote exactly what he needed, right when he needed it,” she says. “It’s so rare that it happens that way.”
Since they knew what the song’s payoff line would be, they dug in on the opening line, turning the “It won’t be long…” hook into a repetitive device. The writers became Birge’s biographers, questioning him about key moments in his relationship with Kara. Those events — their first meeting, their first kiss in a parking lot, their first child — were folded into the piece, capturing the story of their relationship.
“As a songwriter, I’ve kind of learned that the more specific and personal you are, the more relatable a song usually is,” Fox notes. “That’s why it’s so cool with George on this one. A lot of it’s his details, but you wouldn’t know that listening to it. I mean, anyone listening to it could put their details in there.”
Indeed, Birge’s renovation of a dilapidated house, taken down to the studs, isn’t everyone’s experience, but anyone who has done even a minor home makeover can relate. “Any kind of remodeling you do, man, no one forgets that,” McGill says.
They also incorporated Birge’s Little League background, weaving in his No. 7 uniform, as well as his son’s use of the same number. They spent a half-hour on that vignette. “That was the line that took the longest to flesh out,” Birge recalls. “There’s a cadence change to it, and we wanted that line to really pop because it meant a lot seeing your last name [on a uniform] at the plate again. It’s a new version of you. It’s a new chapter. There’s nothing like your kids imitating you.”
The bridge would tie three Birge generations together, while the chorus provided an interpretation of the narrative. Halfway through that stanza, the phrasing and melody change just enough to spotlight the key point of “It Won’t Be Long”: a challenge to the listener to “take the risk” on a life-changing relationship.
“I always like a more drastic melodic change on the second half of a chorus,” Anderson says. “I tend to structure a lot of my songs that way, and I think everyone kind of wanted that to happen.”
“It Won’t Be Long” was written primarily on guitar, but as they finished the work, Fox segued to the piano, which he thought would better reflect the song’s emotional content. He layered that piano part with guitar to create the foundation for a spare demo, with Birge addressing the lead vocal almost as a narration and Anderson shadowing with a single harmony.
It wouldn’t be long before the song made its initial impact. Within hours, Birge’s team was doing figurative handstands over it, and by the end of the week, they had designated it as his next single and even picked an add date. And Fox was enlisted to produce it.
Fox used Birge’s lead vocal from that demo, as well as Anderson’s harmonies, and built a new instrumental framework one piece at a time. Fox played guitars and bass, hired Jerry Roe to deliver a light drum part, got David Dorn to redo the piano and brought in Justin Schipper for atmospheric steel guitar and Dobro. Fox also snuck a single synthesizer note underneath that plays throughout the entire song, even remaining in place when it clashes with the accompanying chord. It provides a barely perceptible, movie-like tension.
“I kind of went for the cinematic thing the whole way through,” Fox says. “It’s one of the first times I put strings in a radio country song.” He did have Birge return to the studio to update his vocal, though he only changed a couple of notes. “We fixed, like, two words,” Fox says. “The way he pronounced them just wasn’t super clear. We just added plosives to the words.”
The production impressed his co-writers, who had suspected Fox would make sure the song’s message remained central to the final recording.
“One of the hardest things to do on these types of songs is use restraint,” McGill says. “It’s so easy to go throw a huge, [amped-up] drum kit on there — big pop and snare — and make it a big banger. Sometimes, with lyrics like these, it’s best just to let it sit right there so the words can sink in. And I think they did an awesome job of that.”
RECORDS Nashville released Birge’s musical biography to country radio via PlayMPE on Jan. 16, anticipating that “It Won’t Be Long” will deepen his connection with listeners as they relate their life stories to his, even if he had only four minutes to create the arc.
“It’s all real life,” Birge says. “It was just picking the stories that pop the most, whittling them down to fit perfectly into the song.”
Selena Gomez has got something up her sleeves, and she’s been teasing her fans on social media. The superstar took to her Instagram Stories on Wednesday (Jan. 23) to share a video wearing headphones while sitting at what appears to be a studio desk, before grabbing the phone and turning it around to reveal the […]
A teenager who stabbed three young girls to death at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in England was sentenced Thursday to more than 50 years in prison for what a judge called “the most extreme, shocking and exceptionally serious crime.”
Judge Julian Goose said 18-year-old Axel Rudakubana “wanted to try and carry out mass murder of innocent, happy young girls.”
Goose said that he couldn’t impose a sentence of life without parole, because Rudakubana was under 18 when he committed the crime.
But the judge said he must serve 52 years, minus the six months he’s been in custody, before being considered for parole, and “it is likely he will never be released.”
Rudakubana was 17 when he attacked the children in the seaside town of Southport in July, killing Alice Da Silva Aguiar, 9, Elsie Dot Stancombe, 7, and Bebe King, 6. He wounded eight other girls, ranging in age from 7 to 13, along with teacher Leanne Lucas and John Hayes, a local businessman who intervened.
The attack shocked the country and set off both street violence and soul-searching. The government has announced a public inquiry into how the system failed to stop the killer, who had been referred to the authorities multiple times over his obsession with violence.
Defendant disrupts the hearing
Rudakubana faced three counts of murder, 10 of attempted murder and additional charges of possessing a knife, the poison ricin and an al-Qaida manual. He unexpectedly changed his plea to guilty on all charges on Monday.
But he wasn’t in court to hear sentence passed on Thursday.
Hours earlier he had been led into the dock at Liverpool Crown Court in northwest England, dressed in a gray prison tracksuit. But as prosecutors began outlining the evidence, Rudakubana interrupted by shouting that he felt ill and wanted to see a paramedic.
Goose ordered the accused to be removed when he continued shouting. A person in the courtroom shouted “Coward!” as Rudakubana was taken out.
The hearing continued without him.
Horror on a summer day
Prosecutor Deanna Heer described how the attack occurred on the first day of summer vacation when 26 little girls were “gathered around the tables making bracelets and singing along to Taylor Swift songs.”
Rudakubana, armed with a large knife, intruded and began stabbing the girls and their teacher.
The court was shown video of the suspect arriving at the Hart Space venue in a taxi and entering the building. Within seconds, screams erupted and children ran outside in panic, some of them wounded. One girl made it to the doorway, but was pulled back inside by the attacker. She was stabbed 32 times but survived.
Gasps and sobs could be heard in court as the videos played.
Heer said two of the dead children “suffered particularly horrific injuries which are difficult to explain as anything other than sadistic in nature.” One of the dead girls had 122 injuries, while another suffered 85 wounds.
A teenager obsessed with violence
The prosecutor said Rudakubana had “a longstanding obsession with violence, killing, genocide.”
“His only purpose was to kill. And he targeted the youngest and most vulnerable in society,” she said, as relatives of the victims watched on in the courtroom.
Heer said that when he was taken to a police station, Rudakubana was heard to say: “It’s a good thing those children are dead, I’m so glad, I’m so happy.”
The killings triggered days of anti-immigrant violence across the country after far-right activists seized on incorrect reports that the attacker was an asylum-seeker who had recently arrived in the U.K. Some suggested the crime was a jihadi attack, and alleged that police and the government were withholding information.
Rudakubana was born in Cardiff, Wales, to Christian parents from Rwanda, and investigators haven’t been able to pin down his motivation. Police found documents about subjects including Nazi Germany, the Rwandan genocide and car bombs on his devices.
In the years before the attack, he had been reported to multiple authorities over his violent interests and actions. All of the agencies failed to spot the danger he posed.
In 2019, he phoned a children’s advice line to ask “What should I do if I want to kill somebody?” He said he had taken a knife to school because he wanted to kill someone who was bullying him. Two months later, he attacked a fellow student with a hockey stick and was convicted of assault.
The definition of terrorism
Prosecutors said Rudakubana was referred three times to the government’s anti-extremism program, Prevent, when he was 13 and 14 — once after researching school shootings in class, then for uploading pictures of Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi to Instagram and for researching a London terror attack.
But they concluded his crimes should not be classed as terrorism because Rudakubana had no discernable political or religious cause. Heer said “his purpose was the commission of mass murder, not for a particular end, but as an end in itself.”
Prime Minister Keir Starmer said this week the country must face up to a “new threat” from violent individuals whose mix of motivations test the traditional definition of terrorism.
“After one of the most harrowing moments in our country’s history, we owe it to these innocent young girls and all those affected to deliver the change that they deserve,” Starmer said after the sentencing.
Wrenching testimony from victims
Several relatives and survivors read emotional statements in court, describing how the attack had shattered their lives.
Lucas, 36, who ran the dance class, said that “the trauma of being both a victim and a witness has been horrendous.”
“I cannot give myself compassion or accept praise, as how can I live knowing I survived when children died?” she said.
A 14-year-old survivor, who can’t be named because of a court order, said that while she was physically recovering. “we will all have to live with the mental pain from that day forever.”
“I hope you spend the rest of your life knowing that we think you’re a coward,” she said.
The prosecutor read out a statement from the parents of Alice Da Silva Aguiar, who said their daughter’s killing had “shattered our souls.”
“We used to cook for three. Now we only cook for two. It doesn’t seem right,” they said. “Alice was our purpose for living, so what do we do now?”
This story was originally published by The Associated Press.
The Contenders is a midweek column that looks at artists aiming for the top of the Billboard charts, and the strategies behind their efforts. This week, for the upcoming Billboard Hot 100 chart dated Feb. 1, we look at whether the surging quasi-title track from Bad Bunny’s latest will be able to get over the top on the chart.
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Bad Bunny, “DtMF” (Rimas): It’s been a triumphant week for Bad Bunny on the Billboard 200, as the Puerto Rican superstar has topped the chart with his new album Debí Tirar Mas Fotos, a personal album largely inspired by the salsa and plena music of his home territory. Though the album debuted at No. 2 – behind Lil Baby’s WHAM – thanks in large part to the set’s release on a Sunday, already two days into the chart tracking week, it climbs to No. 1 this week with 203,500 equivalent album units earned in the U.S., according to Luminate, a staggering number for any album’s second week, showing how many people were still discovering the album following its unusually timed drop.
Bunny would no doubt love to have the same thing happen with the set’s near-title track, “DtMF,” on the Billboard Hot 100. Despite appearing as the album’s penultimate track – number 16 out of 17 — and being something of a departure from Bad Bunny’s usual Latin trap-and-reggaetón-led sound, the song has exploded on streaming services, with fans attaching to its singalong chorus and sentimental lyrics, particularly on TikTok. It’s now pretty clearly the set’s biggest breakout hit, leaping from No. 38 all the way to No. 2 on this week’s Hot 100.
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The song’s explosive growth on streaming seems to be settling down a bit in its third week, though it continues to lead on both Apple Music’s real-time chart and Spotify’s Daily Top Songs USA chart. What really might get in the way of it getting over the top on the Hot 100 is radio airplay: While the song is now being promoted to radio, its airplay has been fairly minimal so far, as the song still trails three other tracks on Fotos, led by advance single “El Clúb.” It’s hard to imagine the unconventionally structured, entirely Spanish-language song ever becoming a major fixture on U.S. top 40, but Bad Bunny might need at least a little radio love to edge out some of the radio-friendlier songs it’s going to be in competition with in the weeks to come – particularly the song currently topping the chart.
Lady Gaga & Bruno Mars, “Die With a Smile” (Streamline/Interscope/Atlantic/ICLG): Like Shaboozey’s “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” in 2024, the chances looked dicey at first for Lady Gaga & Bruno Mars’ “Die With a Smile” to ever get to No. 1 – but now that it’s finally there, it might be sticking around for a little while. The song spends its third frame on top of the chart this week, while actually gaining in both streaming and sales, and remains in the top three of all three Hot 100 component charts: Radio Songs, Digital Song Sales and Streaming Songs.
That combination could make “Smile” tough to unseat on the Hot 100 in the weeks to come. The song is even challenging to finally take over the No. 1 spot on Radio Songs – which would be its first week atop the listing, with “A Bar Song” having reigned for the past 25 weeks (one week away from tying The Weeknd’s “Blinding Lights” for the longest stay atop the chart). And if you’re looking for your early frontrunner for No. 1 on the 2025 year-end Hot 100, it’s gotta be Gaga and Bruno – an honor the latter hasn’t won since the Mark Ronson-led “Uptown Funk!” in 2015, and which the former has still yet to capture in her illustrious pop career.
ROSÉ & Bruno Mars, “APT.” (Atlantic): Bruno Mars’ biggest competition for all-platform pop dominance this early year might of course come from himself. “APT.,” his collaboration with K-pop star and BLACKPINK alum ROSÉ, was already well on its way to breakout smash status in late 2024, and has only continued to grow well into 2025, reaching the Hot 100’s top five – proof not only of ROSÉ’s rising solo star in the U.S., but of Mars’ status as perhaps the single-most can’t-miss pop hitmaker on the entire planet right now.
“APT.” leads on the Digital Song Sales chart for the first time this week, while slipping to No. 9 on Streaming Songs and climbing to No. 11 (after having previously peaked at No. 10) on Radio Songs. The latter chart of course remains its biggest opportunity for growth, as the song is not only challenging for top 10 again on the all-format Radio Songs, but for the No. 1 spot on Pop Airplay. If the song’s streaming performance settles a little in the weeks to come while it continues to spread out on the airwaves, we could very easily see a Bruno vs. Bruno battle at the top of the Hot 100 in the not-too-distant future.
01/23/2025
From música mexicana to urban, the genre-spanning list includes a vast range of Latin stars who we believe will have a big year.
01/23/2025
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As of late, sneaker brand Saucony has become more popular out in these streets as they’ve dropped some pretty interesting silhouettes and collaborated with a few celebrities along the way, and in an effort to keep that train chugging along, Saucony will once again be collaborating with John “Jae Tips” Cotton for their latest offering.
According to Hypebeast, the Bronx native has given Saucony’s Matrix silhouette his own personal remix, and given his history with the sneaker brand, you can expect people to flock to this latest drop by the masses. Though there will be competition out in these streets with Nike’s ridiculous lineup for 2025, Saucony and Jae Tips’ “I Love You But I’m Busy” sneaker is sure to garner much attention and might be a hard cop if their previous releases are any indication of what’s to come.
Per Hypebeast:
Tips and Saucony are almost a half-dozen collabs deep, and their firmly established visual language — bright, bold and colorful — is continued here. Neon-toned shades of pink, orange, yellow and blue can all be seen, with hits of white, grey and black providing a touch of easygoing contrast. A carabiner that holds a multi-colored flower is attached to the left shoe’s laces.
The key detail, however, can be seen across the heels: the left shoe says “I Love You,” while the right shoe clarifies “But Im [sic] busy.” Though Tips has yet to reveal the theme for this collaborative release, there’s a good chance it’s a salute to his busy lifestyle. The aforementioned “To-Do List,” for example, was designed to be the perfect shoe to wear while checking off the tasks on one’s to-do list.
These are pretty cool.
No word on when the kicks are set to drop, but best believe their fans are sure to keep tabs on these joints going forward.
What do y’all think of Saucony and Jae Tips’ “I Love You But I’m Busy” silhouette? Let us know in the comments section below.
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The Nashville high school shooter was a Black teen revealed to have embraced neo-Nazi ideals such as being a “Groyper incel,” according to his social media.
The male student who shot two fellow students, killing one at a high school in Nashville, Tennessee, on Wednesday morning (January 22) was revealed to be an African-American student who left a manifesto posted to social media showing his embrace of white nationalism and self-hate. He was identified as Solomon Henderson, a 17-year-old in the Reserve Officers Training Corp at Antioch High School. Henderson would take his own life after the shooting.
The 300-page manifesto was posted to Henderson’s account on X, formerly Twitter, four hours before he walked into the cafeteria at the school at 11 A.M. Central time and fired multiple rounds with a pistol, killing 16-year-old Josselin Corea Escalante and grazing one 17-year-old unidentified male student. The document showed that Henderson’s motivation for the shooting was a hatred of Black people. “I’m ashamed to be black. I feel like s*** being a n******”, he wrote in the text.
Another message in the document posted before the incident read, “God I am ugly. 4 hours to go,” which was imposed over a photo of Henderson. The document also revealed that Henderson considered himself a “Groyper Incel,” a term used by followers of the neo-Nazi figure Nick Fuentes and members of the involuntarily celibate movement. Henderson cited Fuentes as a major influence, in addition to far-right figure Candace Owens and Kanye West aka Ye, along with other white nationalist mass murderers in inspiring his violence.
Henderson’s manifesto was also filled with notes on his plans for the shooting, stating that he initially planned to commit the act on Thursday but moved it up because he was scared of “failing to kill myself or go to jail” and that he aimed to “kill at least 10 people.” He also detailed his embrace of Neo-Nazi ideals, writing: “We must aid the Aryans regardless of our race.”
Henderson also was confirmed by police to have live-streamed the shooting on multiple platforms, including Kick which shut down his account shortly after the incident. “We extend our thoughts to everyone impacted by this event,” the company said in a statement on X, formerly Twitter. “Violence has no place on Kick. We are actively working with law enforcement and taking all appropriate steps to support their investigation.”
From a pop music perspective, the Donald Trump inauguration seemed normal enough. After Trump’s inaugural address, Carrie Underwood sang “America the Beautiful” — a cappella, in the wake of an audio malfunction. Jason Aldean and Rascal Flatts performed at the inaugural ball; other events featured Nelly, Gavin DeGraw and the Village People; Snoop Dogg even played the Crypto Ball. It was a far cry from eight years ago, when Trump’s first inaugural featured a comparatively anemic lineup of Toby Keith, Jennifer Holliday and 3 Doors Down. Back then, Billboard reported that the 2017 event “has been hobbled by the perception that major entertainment industry names have refused invites to perform at the festivities.”
The reaction of many artists and music executives to Trump’s first term was to hope there wouldn’t be a second. Artists spoke out against him, and those who supported him took their share of criticism for it. (The exception is Lee Greenwood, who has become so associated with Trump that it’s almost hard to remember a time when he wasn’t.) Oddly, the president for whom the music business had so much contempt probably helped it more than President Barack Obama, who championed technology companies at the expense of rights holders, while Trump signed the Music Modernization Act.
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That was then.
Now — well, now things are different. The artists who supported Kamala Harris found out how much power they have — less than they thought. (Remember all that talk about the Swiftie vote?) Mark Zuckerberg and Jeff Bezos, who have real power — they don’t just participate in the conversation, they steer it — had VIP seats at the inauguration. Then there’s Elon Musk, who has used the influence of X in ways that might help Elon Musk (who, when he’s not hating the government, does plenty of business with it). If such powerful CEOs stand behind Trump, who are artists to stay home?
Maybe that’s why artists who seem to hate Trump turned around. Snoop once told DJ Suss that Trump’s supporters were “racist” and starred in a video in which he pulled a fake gun on the character “Ronald Klump.” (The Crypto event at which Snoop performed was independent but Trump embraced the technology by issuing a meme coin.) Village People frontman Victor Willis, who in 2020 asked Trump to stop playing “Y.M.C.A.” and “Macho Man” at his rallies, said on Facebook that the group “accepted an invitation from President Elect Trump’s campaign to participate in inaugural activities.”
These artists aren’t known for their politics — at this point, Snoop’s brand is mostly about being a brand, and Willis seems to relish the exposure Trump gives his songs. (In the Facebook post that announced the Village People performance, Willis also threatened to sue any news organizations that refer to “Y.M.C.A.” as a gay anthem, “because it is damaging to the song.” I will simply note that it originally appeared on the Village People album Cruisin’.) But their actions make other artists less likely to shy away from the new administration. Because the truth is that millions of Americans voted for Trump and those who object to his politics — including myself, incidentally — won’t change their listening habits over anything like this.
Over the past decade or so, “cancel culture” has put pressure on creators and companies to change by trying to ensure that bad behavior has consequences. The problem is that the actual consequences rarely materialize — of all the artists who transgressed and faced online criticism, only R. Kelly saw his popularity plummet, and only after years of accusations, plus multiple convictions. After Morgan Wallen was seen on video using a racial slur in 2021, his radio play plummeted, he was dropped by his booking agent, and his recording contract was “suspended” — but his career recovered within a year. Kanye West still books big venues.
The idea of cancel culture was that the creative sector could pull politics to the left — that if artists and companies pursued more progressive policies, government would follow. Instead, the opposite is happening: Politics is pulling pop culture to the right. Some of this isn’t viscerally ugly — the crypto event that Snoop played isn’t racist or sexist. But unregulated currencies are get-rich-quick schemes backed by arch-libertarian politics that give algorithms more power than democracy.
During Trump’s first term, there was a great deal of #resistance, and the Democrats seemed energized. This isn’t who we are, we told ourselves — it’s an aberration. And for four years starting in 2020, it seemed like that was the case. Now the Democrats are in disarray, united only by their opposition to Trump as a leader, when in fact a new poll showed that many of Trump’s policies are more popular than he is. This is who we are, at least at the moment. Many Trump voters want to see acts they like play inaugural events, and there’s going to be a big market for new artists in the same mold. (I love the Linda Lindas, but there’s more money in signing the next Jason Aldean.)
For the last decade or so, companies that took stands on social issues and artists who spoke up for left-leaning politics were accused of “virtue signaling” — doing the right thing to be seen doing it. At the time, it was so easy to do “the right thing” that it was almost harder not to. No longer; now speaking up for liberal values is going to come at a real cost. It will be interesting to see how many creators and companies are going to be willing to pay it.
SZA and Kendrick Lamar are in the top 10 of the TikTok Billboard Top 50, but will they take over Bad Bunny’s No. 1 spot? Keep watching to find out! Tetris Kelly:This week’s chart sees some major shakeups with half of the top 10 being filled with newbies. Supa King’s “Tell On Me” knocks Bad […]
Kid Cudi’s L.A. residence was the target of a home burglary earlier in January, which reportedly saw the intruder make himself at home as he enjoyed snacks, took a shower and used the bathroom before L.A. County Sheriff’s deputies apprehended him.
Cudi heard fans and some on social media were making light of the invasive situation, and the Ohio native took to his Instagram Story and X on Thursday (Jan. 23) to set the record straight on the trolling of his home invasion by what he called an “unhinged 34 year old man.”
“I see the internets running w things and making jokes this s–t is not funny,” Cudi wrote. “The person that broke into my house was a crazed fan that has been stalking me for years without me knowing. He’s been to shows, events I’ve done in the states and overseas.
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Mr. Rager continued: “He drove across the country and broke into my house hoping to talk w me about collabing and ideas he had. There is nothing funny about this. My privacy was violated, and now I have to protect myself. I don’t feel safe now. He rummaged through personal things, my fiance’s stuff, took a shower and ate, all while thinking he was gonna have a conversation w me. This was an unhinged 34-year-old man.”
Cudi went on to push back on speculation that the intruder was homeless, and says he’s going to take more extreme measures to make sure he and his family are safe going forward so that this never happens again.
“I’m not online to see the comments but word got back to me people are making light of this and it’s not okay,” he added. “If I’m standoffish when u see me in public now, this is why.”
Per TMZ, Cudi wasn’t present at the time his home was burglarized. Earlier in January, Kid Cudi returned to social media to reveal he and his family were safe after evacuating his Los Angeles residence due to the devastating wildfires.
“Hey guys, had to evacuate my crib,” he began in an Instagram Story at the time. “Im safe, w my loved ones, dogs are safe. For all the folk who lost their homes, people that are dealing with this, my heart hurts for you and Im for praying us all and I send ALL my love to you and yours. if you have to evacuate, get out immediately. Dont hesitate. Be safe LA. Love you guys.”
See Cudi’s message about the burglary below:
Hey, so I wanna clear this up cause I see the internets running w things and making jokes and this shit is not funny. The person that broke into my house was a crazed fan that has been stalking me for years with out me knowing. He’s been to shows, events I’ve done in the states…— The Chosen One (@KiDCuDi) January 23, 2025