Kid Cudi says he “hated every minute” of his time on the witness stand at Sean Combs’ sex trafficking and racketeering trial in New York. Still, he found “peace” knowing he was there to support Casandra “Cassie” Ventura, the R&B singer who testified that Combs routinely beat and harassed her during their tumultuous decade-long dating relationship.
Appearing on the Call Her Daddy podcast to promote his new memoir, Cudi, whose real name is Scott Mescudi, revealed that he twice said no to prosecutors when they asked him to testify voluntarily. He then received a subpoena and had no choice.
“At first they asked, I said no. They asked again. I said no. Then I got subpoenaed. And I was like, ‘Fuck, shit, no,’” Mescudi recalled. He considered wearing a suit but then decided he wasn’t “dressing up for this shit.” He arrived at the federal courthouse in downtown Manhattan in jeans and a black leather jacket, smoking a cigarette. “I hated every minute of it,” he recalled. “I did not want to do it.”
The Grammy winner said he managed to get through his May 22 testimony by thinking about Ventura, whom he dated in 2011 when she was taking a break from Combs amid what he testified were “some problems” in that relationship. “I was calm,” Mescudi told podcast host Alex Cooper. He recalled thinking to himself that he was there to corroborate Ventura after she gave four days of grueling testimony the week before.
”I just was there to support her. That’s what kind of gave me peace with it when I sat down in that chair. It [went from], ‘Damn, I don’t want to do this,’ to being like, ‘Oh man, I gotta like hold homegirl down and, you know, look out for her,’” he said.
“Cassie is my friend, you know, and I love her, and I want to see her do well,” he told Cooper. “When I saw her get married, I was so happy for her that she found … her person. When I saw that she was having kids, I was like, awww, this is so awesome. I’ve always just wanted to see her thrive and do well and be happy, because I know she was living the nightmare.”
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Combs ultimately was acquitted of sex trafficking and racketeering conspiracy, though he was convicted of two felony counts of transportation to engage in prostitution. In his closing argument, Combs’ lead lawyer admitted Combs subjected Ventura to brutal domestic violence, but he said the abuse didn’t amount to sex trafficking.
Mescudi was considered a key witness for prosecutors. They questioned him at length about the heart-pounding day in December 2011 when Combs discovered Ventura and Mescudi were dating. He said Combs was irate and personally broke into his home to confront him. Mescudi recalled racing to the home and connecting with Combs by phone during the ride over. “Motherfucker, are you in my house?” he recalled demanding. The two did not end up meeting face to face that day, but Mescudi testified that he returned to find that his Christmas presents were unwrapped and his dog was locked in a bathroom, clearly traumatized by something. He told jurors that his Porsche was later firebombed outside his Hollywood Hills home in January 2012.
Mescudi told jurors that when he went to meet Combs at the Soho House in Los Angeles because the situation was “getting out of hand,” he found Combs “standing there, staring out the window with his hands behind his back, like a Marvel supervillain.” Combs refused to acknowledge any connection to the car fire, Mescudi told the jury.
In her own testimony, Ventura said Combs had told her he planned to bomb Mescudi’s car. Mescudi told jurors he believed Combs “was lying” when he denied any connection. During the trial, Combs’ defense team further denied that the music mogul was to blame.
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Speaking to Cooper, Mescudi said his run-in with Combs was surreal. “In the moment, it was just crazy, like, I had a hard time understanding if it was reality. I was like, ‘Am I in a movie? What the fuck is going on?” he recalled.
“It was just chaotic and intense,” he continued. “I was already out of my mind, dealing with my own personal shit, so I was really just like, ‘Fuck it,’ you know? I was willing to walk into the fire.”
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The “Pursuit of Happiness” rapper said that before Ventura filed her civil lawsuit against Combs in November 2023, publicly revealing the firebombing for the first time, he considered his encounters with Combs to be “just some crazy shit that happened.” He called it another chapter in his “rock and roll life.”
Mescudi also addressed Combs’ trial during an interview with CBS Mornings on Wednesday, saying it was “really hard” to testify. “It was weird, man, because that was the first time I had seen [Combs] in a while,” he recalled. “We made eye contact a couple times. I know I did the right thing, so that’s all that matters.”
