What to know about Kid Cudi, the rapper testifying at the Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs trial

NEW YORK (AP) — Kid Cudi is the latest celebrity to testify at Sean “Diddy” Combs′ sex trafficking trial in New York.

The popular melodic rapper took the stand Thursday and told the jury about his brief relationship 14 years ago with Combs’ ex-girlfriend, the R&B singer Cassie.

Cudi testified about several incidents involving Combs, who prosecutors contend was so upset at the rapper that he arranged to have Cudi’s Porsche 911 convertible firebombed. Cudi told jurors about finding his car burned in the driveway of his Hollywood Hills home in 2012.

Combs has pleaded not guilty to charges that he leveraged his status as a power broker to abuse women.

Here’s what you need to know about the 41-year-old Cudi, whose legal name is Scott Mescudi.

The Cleveland born-and-raised Grammy Award-winning rapper has long been celebrated for his alternative hip-hop, emotional music that effortlessly weaves genres together in surprising ways.

Music tastemakers quickly caught on to Cudi's 2007 single, “Day ‘n’ Nite,” with its unique singsong style that later appeared on his blockbuster 2009 debut, “Man on the Moon: The End of the Day” as “Day ‘n’ Nite (Nightmare)." The song is easily one of the most influential rap tracks of the last two decades. In September, “Day ‘n’ Nite” was certified diamond by the Recording Industry Association of America.

Cudi began as something of a protégé of Kanye West, when the then-uncontroversial rapper signed Cudi to his G.O.O.D. Music label in 2008. Cudi left in 2013.

He is featured on Jay-Z's “The Blueprint 3” and West's landmark “808s & Heartbreak.” Cudi has always had an eye and ear toward innovation. In 2022, his album “Entergalactic” was released alongside a Netflix adult-animated romantic comedy of the same name, which he told The Associated Press allowed him to “explore the abstract.”

Cassie, whose legal name is Casandra Ventura, has been the trial’s central witness with her accounts of years of violence and sexual abuse.

She testified that Combs arranged for her to meet Cudi in 2011 to work on music. The two began dating soon after, and she said she got a burner phone to communicate with Cudi in secret.

Cassie said she and Combs had broken up at the time, although they still engaged in sex parties that Combs orchestrated. It was during one of these that Combs looked at her phone and learned of the Cudi relationship, Cassie testified.

In response, she said he lunged at her with a corkscrew and kicked her in the back.

The Associated Press does not typically name people who say they have been sexually abused unless they come forward publicly, as Cassie has.

Cudi testified Thursday that Combs broke into his Hollywood Hills home in December 2011 after finding out that he and Cassie were dating. He said he and Cassie went to a West Hollywood hotel to get her away from the seething Combs.

There, he said, he got a call from Combs’ assistant, who told him Combs and an affiliate were in his house.

Cudi headed to his home alone and called Combs to ask why he was in his house. He said Combs calmly replied, “I want to talk to you.”

But, Cudi said, Combs wasn’t there when he arrived. Instead, he found Christmas presents that had been opened and his dog was locked in a bathroom.

Cudi said he got back into his car and called Combs again, who replied, “I’m on my way,” Cudi testified.

Cudi said he decided to call the police.

He told jurors his convertible was destroyed by fire in the driveway a few weeks later. Pictures shown to the jury showed a hole cut in the fabric roof and a Molotov cocktail was found in the passenger seat.

Kid Cudi told jurors that Combs denied involvement in the car fire when they met to squash their beef the next day at the SoHo Hotel in Los Angeles.

After the meeting, he said, there were no more break-ins at his house and no more trouble with his car.

Combs ended up apologizing a few years later, when they ran into each other again at the SoHo House hotel, Cudi testified.

The rapper finished his testimony on Thursday by acknowledging that when he started dating Cassie in late 2011, she’d led him to believe that she and Combs were broken up.

His latest album, “Insano,” arrived last year. Soon after its release, “Insano (Nitro Mega),” a partner record that featured Wiz Khalifa, Pusha T, Steve Aoki and more, arrived.

On May 9, Cudi released his latest single, “Neverland.” A short film of the same name, directed by Ti West and produced by Monkeypaw Productions, will premiere at Tribeca Film Festival this June.

Also in May, Cudi officially launched his new apparel label, WZRD.

Daring fashion has been a longtime passion for Cudi; the rapper has partnered with brands such as BAPE and Adidas. He collaborated with the late designer Virgil Abloh, and in 2021 channeled Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain by wearing an Abloh-designed Off-White floral dress on stage at “Saturday Night Live.”

Last week, he announced his engagement to menswear designer Lola Abecassis Sartore.

Cudi is also a celebrated actor, having appeared in a number of feature films and television programs. They include 2020s “Bill & Ted Face the Music,” the 2021 Netflix original “Don't Look Up,” the HBO series “How to Make It in America” and the glossy “House Party” remake in 2023, in which he played it straight as an anti-social lurker who doesn’t like parties (“too much laughing”) and only wanted to go to give his pal LeBron a poem, as The Associated Press' Lindsey Bahr wrote in her review.

Associated Press writers Michael R. Sisak and Andrew Dalton contributed to this report.

Rapper Kid Cudi leaves Federal Court after testifying at the trial of Sean "Diddy" Combs, in New York, Thursday, May 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

Music artist Kid Cudi testifies on the witness stand during Sean "Diddy" Combs' sex trafficking and racketeering trial in Manhattan federal court,Thursday, May 22, 2025, in New York. (Elizabeth Williams via AP)

FILE - Kid Cudi attends the world premiere of "Don't Look Up" at Jazz at Lincoln Center on Dec. 5, 2021, in New York. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP, file)

FILE - Kid Cudi appears at the Los Angeles premiere of "Sonic The Hedgehog 2," on April 5, 2022. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP, File)

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea on Thursday displayed apparent progress in the construction of a nuclear-powered submarine, with state media photos showing a largely completed hull, as leader Kim Jong Un condemned rival South Korea’s push to acquire the technology.

North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency said Kim visited a shipyard to inspect the construction of what the North describes as an 8,700-ton-class nuclear-propelled submarine, which the leader has called a crucial step in the modernization and nuclear armament of North Korea’s navy. The North has indicated it plans to arm the submarine with nuclear weapons, calling it a “strategic guided missile submarine” or a “strategic nuclear attack submarine.”

During the visit, Kim described South Korea’s efforts to acquire its own nuclear-powered submarine, which have been backed by U.S. President Donald Trump, as an “offensive act” that severely violates the North’s security and maritime sovereignty.

He said that the South Korean plan further underscores the need to advance and nuclear-arm North Korea’s navy, and claimed that the completion of his nuclear-powered submarine would be an “epoch-making” change in strengthening its nuclear war deterrent against what he called enemy threats.

The agency did not specify when Kim visited the shipyard but released photos showing him inspecting a huge, burgundy-colored vessel, coated with what appears to be anti-corrosion paint, under construction inside an assembly hall with senior officials and his daughter. It was the first time North Korean state media had released images of the submarine since March, when they mostly showed the lower sections of the vessel.

It was not immediately clear how close North Korea is to completing the vessel. But because submarines are typically built from the inside out, the release of what appears to be a largely completed hull suggests that many core components, including the engine and possibly the reactor, are already in place, said Moon Keun-sik, a submarine expert at Seoul’s Hanyang University.

“Showing the entire vessel now seems to indicate that most of the equipment has already been installed and it is just about ready to be launched into the water,” said Moon, a former submarine officer in the South Korean navy, who believes the North Korean submarine could possibly be tested at sea within months.

A nuclear-powered submarine was one item on a long wish list of sophisticated weaponry that Kim announced during a major political conference in 2021 to cope with what he called growing U.S.-led military threats. Other weapons were solid-fueled intercontinental ballistic missiles, hypersonic weapons, spy satellites and multi-warhead missiles.

North Korea has conducted a series of tests to develop some of those systems and recently unveiled a new naval destroyer, which Kim hailed as a major step toward expanding the operational range and preemptive strike capabilities of the country’s nuclear forces.

If North Korea obtains a submarine capable of operating stealthily for extended periods and launching missiles from underwater, it would be a worrying development for its neighbors, as such launches would be difficult to detect in advance. But there have been questions about whether North Korea, a heavily sanctioned and impoverished country, could get resources and technology to build nuclear-powered submarines.

Some experts say North Korea’s recent alignment with Russia — including sending thousands of troops and military equipment to support President Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine — may have helped it to receive crucial technologies in return.

While some analysts suspect North Korea may have sought a reactor from Russia, possibly from a retired Russian submarine, Moon said it's more likely that North Korea designed its own reactor, while possibly receiving some technological assistance from Russia.

During a summit with Trump in November, South Korean President Lee Jae Myung called for U.S. support for South Korea’s efforts to acquire nuclear-powered submarines, while reaffirming a commitment to increase defense spending to ease the burden on the United States.

Trump later said that the United States is open to sharing closely held technology to allow South Korea to build a nuclear-powered submarine, but it’s not immediately clear where and when the vessel would be built and how Seoul would get the nuclear fuel and reactor technology required.

In a separate report, KCNA said Kim on Wednesday supervised tests of new antiair missiles fired into the sea. South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff later said it had detected the North launching several missiles from an eastern coastal town, and that South Korean and U.S. intelligence agencies were assessing the details of the weapons.

Tensions on the Korean Peninsula have worsened in recent years as Kim accelerated his military nuclear program and deepened alignment with Moscow following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. His government has repeatedly dismissed calls by Washington and Seoul to revive negotiations aimed at winding down his nuclear and missile programs, which derailed in 2019 following a collapsed summit with Trump during the American president’s first term.

In this photo provided by the North Korean government, a test of a long-range anti-air missile is launched towards its eastern sea, as seen from an undisclosed location in North Korea, Wednesday, Dec. 24, 2025. Independent journalists were not given access to cover the event depicted in this image distributed by the North Korean government. The content of this image is as provided and cannot be independently verified. Korean language watermark on image as provided by source reads: "KCNA" which is the abbreviation for Korean Central News Agency. (Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP)

In this undated photo provided Thursday, Dec. 25, 2025, by the North Korean government, its leader Kim Jong Un, with his daughter, inspects a nuclear-powered submarine under construction at an undisclosed location in North Korea. Independent journalists were not given access to cover the event depicted in this image distributed by the North Korean government. The content of this image is as provided and cannot be independently verified. Korean language watermark on image as provided by source reads: "KCNA" which is the abbreviation for Korean Central News Agency. (Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP)

In this undated photo provided Thursday, Dec. 25, 2025, by the North Korean government, its leader Kim Jong Un, third left, visits a shipyard as he inspects a nuclear-powered submarine under construction at an undisclosed location in North Korea. Independent journalists were not given access to cover the event depicted in this image distributed by the North Korean government. The content of this image is as provided and cannot be independently verified. Korean language watermark on image as provided by source reads: "KCNA" which is the abbreviation for Korean Central News Agency. (Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP)

In this undated photo provided Thursday, Dec. 25, 2025, by the North Korean government, its leader Kim Jong Un inspects a nuclear-powered submarine under construction at an undisclosed location in North Korea. Independent journalists were not given access to cover the event depicted in this image distributed by the North Korean government. The content of this image is as provided and cannot be independently verified. Korean language watermark on image as provided by source reads: "KCNA" which is the abbreviation for Korean Central News Agency. (Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP)

In this undated photo provided Thursday, Dec. 25, 2025, by the North Korean government, its leader Kim Jong Un inspects a nuclear-powered submarine under construction at an undisclosed location in North Korea. Independent journalists were not given access to cover the event depicted in this image distributed by the North Korean government. The content of this image is as provided and cannot be independently verified. Korean language watermark on image as provided by source reads: "KCNA" which is the abbreviation for Korean Central News Agency. (Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP)