Kid Cudi is no longer the opener for Lady Gaga's highly anticipated MONSTER BALL Tour. A statement released by the Cleveland-bred rapper cites scheduling conflicts as the reason for not completing the run."Kid Cudi has decided to take an early leave of absence from Lady Gaga's MONSTER BALL Tour in order to balance his schedule surrounding the recording of his next album and acting commitments," the statement read. "Cudi does not want to disappoint his fans and will move forward with his individual show dates in December and throughout the month of January."
However, sources confirmed to the media that Cudi has indeed been dismissed as a result of the December 12, 2009 incident where the rapper assaulted a fan mid-performance at a Vancouver concert stop. After an unidentified attendee launched a wallet onstage, Cudi, instead of opening the wallet and possibly identifying the wallet-hurler, threw it back into the crowd where concertgoer Michael Sharpe caught it. The wallet, however, did not belong to Sharpe, so Sharpe threw it back onstage. Unfortunately for Sharpe, an enraged Cudi then jumped off stage and decked Sharpe. Unfortunately for Cudi, footage of the punch made it to the Internet.
Cudi is the second rapper to be "kicked off" a Lady Gaga tour. In October 2009, Kanye West and Lady Gaga mutually canceled their winter FAME KILLS tour blaming poor ticket sales as the reason. It was widely believed the slow ticket sales resulted from the negative media behind West's infamous interruption of Taylor Swift's Best Female Video acceptance speech at the MTV Video Music Awards. The Cudi camp still plans on honoring their currently booked after-show club appearances.
Semi Precious Weapons will replace Cudi on Gaga's MONSTER BALL Tour.
Lady GaGa's MONSTER BALL Tour will be at the James L. Knight Center in downtown Miami, Florida on New Year's Eve: Thursday December 31, 2009 and on Saturday January 2, 2010.
