Kid Cudi recently joined the viral TikTok trend celebrating his 2008 track “Maui Wowie.” The rapper posted a video of himself hanging from a street sign while mouthing the lyrics to the song, thanking fans for giving it new life nearly two decades later.
“Thank u to everyone for posting my song and havin fun and showing love!!!” Cudi wrote in the caption. “17 years old and timeless.”
The trend began with TikTok user @aaronxbrownn, who uploaded a clip on September 5 of himself hanging from a crosswalk sign while lip-syncing, “Goin’ back to Honolulu just to get that, that Maui Wowie.” The video sparked a wave of recreations that spread across the platform, with users joining in on the challenge.
As the trend gained traction, “Maui Wowie” made a notable return to the charts. On October 7, the song re-entered Spotify’s daily songs chart at No. 98, jumping 22 spots with over 390,000 streams in a single day.
Cudi’s renewed popularity follows his recent announcement that he plans to take a break from music to pursue other creative passions. In September, he shared a song called “Once” on SoundCloud, describing it as a “goodbye for now song.”
“It was produced by myself with my homie Sebastian addin’ extra sauce here and there,” Cudi wrote in a note to fans. “Taking a break but wanted to leave u [with] something special and from the heart. [You’ll] be hearing me featured on my friends’ albums but as far as me, I gotta step into the shadows and focus on my other dreams.”
Earlier that month, he mentioned on X that he was considering stepping back from albums to focus on acting, directing, fashion, and painting.
