Wale and Kid CuDi Reunite

Rappers Wale and Kid CuDi ended their feud earlier this year, and now the friends-turned-enemies-turned-friends again have collaborated on the track “Focused” from Wale's upcoming album, Ambition.

"We're 23 years old at this time, we're trying to figure it all out," Wale said of he and CuDi's friendship. "We went from not having sh-- to having money at our disposal, so it kind of f---ed up our friendship. He doesn't smoke as much anymore, but his name is Scott."

The two rappers reconciled via Twitter several months ago.

“I was like, 'Sup, man, how you been?' He said, 'I been good, man. I just wanted to get right to it: I know I've been acting kind of f---ed up and weird,' and this that and a third and all that other personal sh--. He threw that out there, and we just made amends. The next morning, he called me like, 'I just wanted to let you know I wasn't high or anything when I called you. I really meant it.'"

Introducing the King of Hip-Hop

Now more than three decades old as a recorded medium, hip-hop is deeply embedded in popular culture – to the point where its stars seem not only larger than life but also, as Rick Ross once put it, "deeper than rap." But even as they sell out arenas and top the pop charts, rappers still court the respect and esteem of their hip-hop peers. The title King of Hip-Hop still means something.

In that spirit, just as we did in June with the Queen of Pop, we've crunched a pile of data to try to determine who is the current King of Hip-Hop.

We're not looking for the all-time greatest, although many of our contenders would vie for that crown. Some of them have only been recording a couple of years; others have been in the game since the 1990s. But that's what makes hip-hop exciting – it's plausible for someone who was watching cartoons when Jay-Z dropped his debut album to emerge as a contender for the title.

As with our Queen of Pop tally, in naming the King of Hip-Hop we focused on the very recent past: from 2009 through the first seven months of 2011. We ranked 20 solo rappers (no groups – sorry, Beasties) who have dropped an album during that time. We looked at album sales, rankings on the R&B/hip-hop and rap charts, YouTube views, social media, concert grosses, industry awards and critics' ratings. In alphabetical order, our contenders are: Big Boi, B.o.B, Diddy, Drake, Eminem, Fabolous, Lupe Fiasco, Gucci Mane, Jay-Z, Kid Cudi, Lil Wayne, Ludacris, Nicki Minaj, Pitbull, Rick Ross, Snoop Dogg, T.I., Waka Flocka Flame, Kanye West and Wiz Khalifa.

All of our contenders are men except for Minaj, who reappears from our Queen of Pop survey. We like to think of "King" as a gender-neutral term, and the fact is that Minaj has earned the right to compete in this arena. It would feel strange to leave her out – as a rapper, she's had a world-beating couple of years, with a chart-topping album, block-rocking singles and a slew of killer guest appearances. Frankly, she deserves to be called a hip-hop king just for her giant-killing appearance on West's hit "Monster," in which she crushed West and fellow guests Rick Ross and Jay-Z with one blow.

Fans of the rappers, and the acts themselves, take these sorts of rankings pretty seriously. (We learned that firsthand in the comments section of Queens of Pop.) We stand by our data, but of course we know that no King of Hip-Hop index can capture swagger or flow – if it could, the all-time title might go to Q-Tip or Rakim. As you'll see, it turned out to be a fairly exciting contest. Our top overall contenders were pretty evenly matched, with five different rappers leading at least one tally each.

Let's start with the tally that comes with the biggest bragging rights: album sales.

9 pages of FACTS By ---> Rolling Stone

Kanye West Snags Seven VMA Nods

Rapper Kanye West has landed seven MTV Video Music Awards, leading all male nominees for the 2011 ceremony. West's videos “All of the Lights” and “Power" are among the nominees. He's also nominated for Best Hip-Hop Video, Best Male Video, and two for his Rihanna and Kid Cudi-assisted “All of the Lights.”

Eminem and Nicki Minaj both garnered three nominations each, with Tyler the Creator, Wiz Khalifa, and Big Sean also among nominees. Notables Lil Wayne and Pitbull are nominated, as well.

. The 2011 MTV VMA's will be at the Nokia Theater in Los Angeles on August 28th.

Kid Cudi's TV Role Expands

Kid Cudi has said that his role on the HBO show "How To Make It In America" will be expanded this upcoming season. The rapper says that this season will reveal more layers to his character and he will get to showcase the range of his acting abilities.

"This season, my character has a lot more depth than the first season, and one of the things that I really took seriously was preparing. I got an acting coach; I wanted to step it up," he told MTV News. "With anything that I'm doing, I always want to take it to the next level — whether it's music or acting."

"The biggest lesson I've learned, I guess, is just the focus part of it, transforming into this character," he said. "First season, my character was in six out of eight episodes, and I kinda popped up and I was here and there, and my character was more perceived as the party guy. But I really did what I could with the first [season] without having many skills."

Video: Kanye West KiD CuDi Big Sean – All Of The Lights (Live @ Heineken Red Star Access)

Kid Cudi On His Sobriety

Kid Cudi opened up about the fan reaction to his newfound sobriety. The rapper who branded himself 'The Lonely Stoner' is proudly drug-free, but says that his audience hasn't embraced the new Cudi with open arms.

"There were a lot of write-ups where people were just sh*tting on it and there were a lot of people who were like, 'We liked you better when you were on drugs,'" Cudi revealed in an interview. "It's kinda like, 'Man, OK, well you weren't a fan to begin with so f*ck you,' and I like myself better off drugs. So it's about me and it's about evolving and it's about change. It's about becoming a man; it's about becoming mature...Ten years from now I'm going look at my discography and I'm gonna be proud of it -- I don't want to be 10 years from now looking at my discography, like, 'Man, I was a f*cking knucklehead when I made that.'"

Pusha T Joining HBO Series

G.O.O.D. Music rapper Pusha T will be appearing on the upcoming season of HBO's cult hit, "How To Make It America." The former Clipse emcee will star alongside Bryan Greenberg and Kid Cudi for four episodes. He'll portray a weed dealer.

The episodes are currently filming and are due for the new season, which will premiere in the summer 2011. Rapper Kid Cudi has starred as Domingo Dean, one of the main characters on the show, since its debut.

Covers KiD CuDi ZINK Magazine

Kid Cudi Done Smoking

With the infamous stoner "4/20" holiday having passed yesterday (April 20), rapper Kid Cudi addressed the fact that he no longer smokes marijuana. The Cleveland native was one of hip hop's most well-known potheads, but revealed that he decided to put an end to his habit. [video here]

"You know how some people can take a smoke and they're good, they do it for recreational purposes, sh*t like that?" Cudi said. "People that go to bars or drink at their house with their friends casually. I was the motherf*cker who was doing that sh*t all the time, recreationally, every day, wake up, needed it, all those things. While I was in that state of mind I just was missing a lot of sh*t that was going on in my circle."

"I just felt like I needed to just take a step back, clear my dome and focus on some real important sh*t," he added. "Like my daughter for one. My family, my business, things that are important. But you know, don't be sad, I had a good run right? We got high together a lot right?"

Wale Talks Kid CuDi

Wale revealed that the root of he and Kid Cudi's brief war of words was their friendship. The two took shots at each other repeatedly over several months before publicly making nice via Twitter. Wale says they're better friends for it.



"We're close friends, and the closer friends you are with somebody the worse the fights [can] be," Wale said in an interview. "We squashed it. Everything good. He good, he good. He's taking care of his kid, working hard, working on his new album. He's working with a lot of the same people, he got a lot of new faces. His circle is significantly smaller, but sometimes that's what you need to do, reevaluate your circle."

Kid Cudi Leaves His Label

Rapper Kid Cudi took to Twitter to announce his split from his longtime label Dream On. Dream On has released all of Cudi's commercial music since 2009. The rapper was slightly vague, but he did say that things are fine between himself and Kanye West's G.O.O.D. Music imprint.

“Pat and Emile [of Dream On] are doing their own thing, I wish them well," Cudi said. "I have a diff vision, for music, for the world. I'm just doing the right thing, I come from a different place. people lose sight of the mission. Can't expect everyone to be built like me. when people have different visions, you gotta go your own way. Dream on is over, new label announcement soon. Always f—-n with yeezy, for life. period. A true friend. GOOD music affiliate for life."

"As far as my movement, I have to lead it. Can't expect people to have the same morals as me … I am still with GOOD music, with that being said im just changin my side of things up a bit. So it will be ?/GOOD. Still distributed through Motown. the jams will be the same, but more real and true to me. the new label will be formed with @DotDaGenius. I have a new name [for the label], I just wanna lock it in contractually first. This is a day to rejoice, this isn't bad news. Things are gonna be so epic, I'm like a kid on xmas eve I'm so excited bout this new chapter.”

Wale & Kid Cudi Squash Beef

Rappers Wale and Kid Cudi have been engaged in an alt-rap war of words for the past year or so. Things seemingly went sour after Cudi said that he and Wale didn't 'click' anymore, to which Wale responded that he didn't know why he and Cudi were no longer friends. After some barb-slinging regarding each other's rhyme skills, things quieted down. Now, it looks like the two are looking to put the tension behind them.

"@wale yooo," Cudi tweeted. "its never too late to make things right." To which, Wale responded, "@wizardcud yo. We back cuz ... GOOD x MMG ...of course"

Wale seemed to be hinting at possible future work between Cudi's G.O.O.D. Music and Wale's Maybach Music, imprints headed by Kanye West and Rick Ross, respectively.

Kanye West - All Of The Lights ft. Rihanna, Kid Cudi Directed by Hype Williams

Directed by Hype Williams.

Kanye West - All Of The Lights ft. Rihanna, Kid Cudi