Kid Cudi Calls 'Marijuana' Video An 'R.I.P. To My Smoking Career'

'It's the last time you will ever see me smoking,' Cudi tells MTV News of Shia LaBeouf-directed clip.
By Rob Markman

Kid Cudi
Photo: MTV News

The lonely stoner may have quit smoking herb, but Kid Cudi's latest video, "Marijuana," will always serve as a reminder of his high times. The clip, which was shot and directed by Cudder's actor pal Shia LaBeouf, was filmed in Amsterdam back in 2010 when Cudi served as a judge for the Cannabis Cup.

LaBeouf originally reached out to Cudi through their mutual friend Cage because he wanted to shoot a short film centered around "MANIAC," a song on Cudi's second album, Man on the Moon II: The Legend of Mr. Rager.

"While we were brainstorming that, I had the gig to perform in Amsterdam. I was thinking about ways to do a video for 'Marijuana' because I knew I wanted to do something and I wanted to do the right thing," Cudi told MTV News from the set of his HBO series "How to Make It in America." "And it just hit me one day, like, 'Yo, I can have Shia come with me and film the whole trip and we could do it like a real vintage documentary style of the entire trip.' What could be iller than that?"

The video shows Cudi and Cage arriving in Amsterdam, moving through a restaurant, their hotel and the famed red-light district smoking exotic strains of weed. Aesthetically, the "Marijuana" video comes off like old home footage thanks to LaBeouf's 8 mm and 16 mm cameras. "That's why it looks real vintage; that's not an effect," Cudi said.

Some fans were confused by the video, however, given that on April 1, Kid Cudi announced on his Tumblr page that he had given up smoking weed. The singer/actor assures us that nothing has changed.

"It's something I did before I decided to quit smoking marijuana," Cudders explained of the video. "However, I didn't want to deprive people of the footage, deprive people of the video because of my personal decisions. It was almost like an R.I.P. video to my whole smoking career."

For Mr. Solo Dolo, there is no turning back; he insists that he is done with herb. "That was a big, big, memorable moment for me and watching it reminds me of those good times we had," he said. "It's kinda like the last hoorah, the last time you will ever see me smoking."

Related Artists

• Kid Cudi

Esther Cañadas Eva Green Eva Longoria Eva Mendes Evangeline Lilly