Kid Cudi Hints He’s ‘Nearing the End’ of His Career as a Rapper Over ‘Hot Ones’

Kid Cudi stopped by Hot Ones on Thursday (Oct. 6) to chat about his new album Entergalactic and hinted at the possibility of retiring within a few years.

The topic of throwing in the towel came up when host Sean Evans asked the rapper who he looked to as the blueprint for aging gracefully as an artist. “Yeah, like Jay-Z for sure,” he said. “But I don’t feel like I have what they have. I just don’t know if I wanna do music, drop albums for too much longer, you know? I’m kind of nearing the end on all things Kid Cudi, I think.”

“I’m really curious to see what else I can do,” Cudi added when pressed by the host. “I was thinking about this — and this is like a wacky idea I had years ago. But it would be cool to, like, one day be a kindergarten teacher. And just do that for a couple years. Like, when I’m, like, 50… And I just, like, infect the youth with that freshness. Get ’em young, and then those kids will just sprinkle the freshness to the world, and I’ll just be like, ‘Yes! Yes!'”

As the spice level of the hot sauces ratcheted up, Cudi also explained why he describes the style of his music as “space punk rock,” calling it, “Super synth-y but reckless and dangerous and edgy.”

The rapper’s latest album — the long-awaited Entergalactic — arrived last week. Dedicated to his late friend Virgil Abloh, the studio set was preceded by singles “Do What I Want” and “Willing to Trust,” the latter featuring Ty Dolla $ign.

Watch Cudi’s full Hot Ones interview below.