December 22, 2009 10:12

Kid Cudi stopped at gunpoint by Los Angeles police

Rapper held due to mistaken identity after NME photoshoot

Kid Cudi was pulled over at gunpoint by police in a case of mistaken identity in Los Angeles yesterday (December 21).

The rapper, who was in the city to play live dates having recently pulled out of Lady Gaga's Monster Ball Tour, had been doing a photoshoot with NME outside the Joyrich store on Melrose Avenue.

Shortly after leaving the store with his entourage in two SUVs and a Jeep, the rapper was pulled over by an officer on Fairfax Avenue.

Two police cars cordoned off the road while a further three pulled up next to Cudi's vehicles. Passengers in the cars were then ordered out with their hands on their heads, before being made to kneel on the ground where they were handcuffed. It was only then that Los Angeles Police Department officers realised it was a case of mistaken identity.

After the passengers had been released, the officer in charge explained that a resident in the vicinity of the shop had mistakenly identified the party as being involved in a burglary, before allowing Cudi's entourage to go on its way.

Kid Cudi later told NME.COM that he wasn't sure what had happened.

"Who knows, really, the story changed a bunch," he said. "I'm just happy to be back. I'm a free man! For that moment I was not free. I was in handcuffs. It did not feel very comfortable."

He added that he did not begrudge the police for the error: "We're in LA, it's a rowdy place in the United States, you know? And a lot of shit goes down. And these cops have to use force. So it's, like, I understand that they were doing their job. I just wish we weren't in that place at that time."

Read NME.COM's eyewitness blog about Kid Cudi's brush with the LAPD now.