Los Angeles, July 18 (IANS): American rapper Kanye West has decided to opt out of the Rolling Loud music festival, which is set to begin on Friday at the Hard Rock Stadium in Miami.
Festival organisers have confirmed his exit and have decided to put Kid Cudi's performance in Kanye's place making Cudi the headliner, reports Variety.
News of West's exit from the event comes just days before Rolling Loud is set to kick off. The co-founders Tariq Cherif and Matt Zingle shared a statement with Variety, saying, "We were looking forward to Ye headlining Rolling Loud Miami 2022. We spent months working with him and his team on the performance."
"Unfortunately, Ye has decided that he will no longer be performing. This is the first time a headliner has ever pulled off our show and though we don't take it lightly, we wish him the best. We look forward to welcoming Kid Cudi as a headliner in Miami and we can't wait to see what he has in store", the statement further read.
Rolling Loud also added that it "did its utmost to keep Kanye on the line-up until the last possible moment" but "he wasn't having it."
Cherif claims that Rolling Loud maintained a strong "personal and professional relationship" with the rapper that started in December 2021. They revealed they had received multiple assurances from West about the Miami 2022 performance and he appeared enthusiastic about the festival "even urging the company to reveal the line-up days "before the scheduled announcement time."
This is not the first time Kanye has pulled out of a performance. According to Variety, earlier this year, West also cancelled his headlining appearance at Coachella, citing personal reasons for his withdrawal. West's departure from Coachella also came on short notice, only 11 days before the California festival.
Just three days ago, West was sued in a California court for $7.1 million by a production and design company that said it had not been paid for working on the cancelled Coachella appearance, along with the "Donda 2" release show several other collaborations.