Kevin Mazur/Getty Kid Cudi is opening up to PEOPLE about fatherhood — and why his daughter Vada called him the "best dad ever" The multi-hyphenate, who just released his powerful memoirCUDI, revealed that he "almost cried" after getting a text from his daughter earlier this month "She's my best friend, my homie, my ride or die. She's all those things," he says Kid Cudiis the "best dad ever," at least according to his No. 1 supporter — hisdaughter Vada. The multi-platinum rapper, 41, revealed to PEOPLE while discussing fatherhood and his new book,Cudi: The Memoir,that a recent text from his 15-year-old "best friend" and "ride or die" left him emotional earlier this month. "She literally texted me the other day, because I sent her a clip from when I was talking about her in my CBS interview, and she was like, 'You're the best dad ever,' " Cudi says, referring to hisrecent sit-down onCBS Mornings. "It was just like... I remember the first time she said that to me, I was like, 'Word.' I was so weak. I almost cried." "I was like, 'Yo, she said, I'm the best dad ever. Holy shit. Out of all the dads? Oh, man," Cudi adds of Vada. "You know what I mean? She's my best friend, my homie, my ride or die. She's all those things." Theo Wargo/Getty Cudi, who welcomed Vada from a previous relationship, adds that before becoming a father in 2010, he wishes he had known there would be "nothing to worry about." "I was really worried because of the circumstances. I wasn't raising Vada 24/7. I only saw her a couple times throughout the year, and I always felt that our relationship wouldn't be strong because I'm not with her 24/7. But that was one of the first things I thought that was really the wrong way to think about things," Cudi says. "Of course, my daughter is going to want to have a relationship with me, and our relationship is going to be cool." Cudi's relationship with Vada is now more than cool. The father-daughter duo have much in common — including their love of gaming, horror movies and even similar fashion senses, as Vada and Cudi's niece Zuri will occasionally "shop" his closet. "I remember when she was like 3 or 5, I got her a Nintendo 3DS with some Mario games," Cudi says. "And so I've been trying to implement these things, and she really is into the horror movies. She doesn't get scared. She watches them even without me." Still, Cudi is getting used to a few of his daughter's interests. "She plays games that are a little bit more advanced for me now. I can't f--- with Fortnite," he jokes, after writing in his memoir that he grew up on the Sega Game Gear and Sonic the Hedgehog titles as a kid. "It just seems really intense, and there's some 12-year-old kid from Massachusetts that's like a f------ beast that plays that game all day, every day in the summers. And I [have to] just hang with those 12-year-old kids on there." Cudi also gets candid about fatherhood in his new memoir, which arrives alongside his 11th studio album,Free,and has since become a New York Times Bestseller. The book details the rapper's early life in Cleveland, meteoric rise to stardom in the late '00s, groundbreaking collaborations and life now as a loving father and husband who continues to build upon his legacy of vulnerability in hip-hop, fashion and beyond. "I hope it gives [fans] some hope that you do come out on the other side and into the light and God puts us through things because he wants to teach us something," Cudi says of the book. "It's always a lesson in there, always. Even if it doesn't seem like it could be possible, because in the moment, everything just seems like all is lost, you know what I mean? But if you really think about it, everything happens for a reason." Cudi: The Memoiris out now via Simon & Schuster, andFreeis now available via Wicked Awesome and Republic Records. For more on Kid Cudi, pick up the latest issue of PEOPLE, on newsstands everywhere Friday. Read the original article onPeople
