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American rapper Kid Cudi performs live on stage during Rock en Seine music festival at Domaine National de Saint-Cloud on August 21, 2025 in Paris, France.
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Key Takeaways:
- A TikTok meme by user @aaronxbrownn sparked a viral trend using Kid Cudi’s 2008 track “Maui Wowie.”
- The song’s renewed popularity has boosted streams and landed it on Spotify’s Viral 50 playlist.
- Cudi embraced the trend and called the track “17 years old and timeless” in a TikTok post.
Even when he is on a self-administered “hiatus,” Kid Cudi is still active. The Cleveland rapper recently took to social media to take part in the “Maui Wowie” viral trend inspired by a song that’s almost 20 years old.
“Goin’ back to Honolulu just to get that/That Maui Wowie, that Maui Wowie,” is the chorus to Cudder’s “Maui Wowie,” which appeared on his 2008 mixtape A Kid Named Cudi. The meme reportedly originated with TikTok user @aaronxbrownn. In September 2025 he posted a clip of himself hanging on to a street sign while singing the “Maui Wowie” refrain, and a new trend was born.
There have since been thousands of videos of people participating in the challenge, unwittingly soundtracked by Cudi. The classic tune caught a bump in streams and is currently on Spotify’s daily Viral 50 playlist.
And now the “Day ‘n’ Nite” rapper has joined in, posting a video of himself smiling and participating in the challenge. “Thank [you] to everyone for posting my song and havin’ fun and showing love!!!” said Cudi in his caption. “17 years old and timeless.”
Interestingly, while the tune pays homage to a strain of marijuana, Cudi told People in August 2025 that at one point he was smoking 15 blunts a day. But he’s cut back massively on it after quitting for several months. “Now I just get after it at night or on the weekends when I have the free time and I’m just relaxing, but I’m not smoking nowhere near as much weed as I was smoking before,” Cudi told People. “A joint lasts me all day, damn near. So, my relationship has changed with that in a major way. And I’m just more interested in being sober a lot more and being more present.”
Cudi just released his latest album, Free, his last on a major label, this August. However, he soon revealed that he would be taking a break from dropping music. Shortly after that, he dropped a new independent track, “Once,” which he called his “goodbye for now.”
Considering he’s participating in social media memes and just recently popped out to perform at an Adam Sandler show in Cleveland, he isn’t too far away.