Retiring For A Rollout
Are these rappers just playing with our emotions or are they really ready to hang their jersey? There seems to be an abrupt trend within Hip-Hop to announce retirement prematurely. It’s not a joke, people’s lives are on the line here!
The self-proclaimed ‘Queen of Rap,’ Nicki Minaj tweeted earlier this month “I've decided to retire & have my family.” A few days later, Minaj had deleted that tweet to which she responded, “I’m still right here. Still madly in love with you guys & you know that…The tweet was abrupt & insensitive, I apologize babe.” Now as speculators, how are we supposed to digest such shocking information?
Retiring in Hip-Hop is used quite loosely, where many in the past have come back from “retirement” to give us a new project. Is that really retirement, or just a little break that artists often take? And let’s not forget, this isn’t Minaj’s first attempt at hinting to retirement. She went on BBC Radio in 2012 and said, “…Now the kid is thinking maybe she should leave the game.” Despite no formal marketing or the news paired with a final album, it still seems that this was just a gimmick to spice things up and build anticipation from her fans, who spent the summer being obsessed with living a hot girl summer.
Earlier this year, rapper Lil Uzi Vert announced retirement as well. In a January 2019 Instagram video, Uzi claimed that he is done with music and “…Just wants to be normal.” Uzi said, “I wanna take the time out to say I thank each and every one of my supporters but I’m done with music,” he said. “I deleted everything I wanna be normal. I wanna wake up in 2013.”
That rhetoric is understandable and very relatable, but it doesn’t seem like Uzi got what he intended for. Uzi then released ‘Free Uzi’ on SoundCloud, which addressed the conflict between himself and his label, Generation Now. His label drama seemed to be over after DJ Drama (co-founder of Generation Now) wrote in a March Instagram post, “Uzi should put out EA tomorrow or any day he wants,” the rapper officially released two singles that had been previously leaked, “Sanguine Paradise” and “That’s a Rack” in April.
Rap fans often get lost in a rapper’s marketing tactic but then also lead with presumable intentions. In 2019, it is safe to say that rappers are implementing new structures within the industry, and it is quite possible that some actually successfully hang up their jersey. But retiring in rap is not simple nor as obvious, as retiring in the NBA.
The narrative seems inauthentic. Rappers announce their leave and a couple of months later release music; that doesn’t sound like retirement. All of these claims just seem like attention-seeking cries. Maybe there isn’t a simple way to exit Hip-Hop, artists like Eminem and The Game go years without releasing music but then surprise their fans. With ongoing features, mixtapes and singles, perhaps the exit out of Hip-Hop is a complex and non-existing proposal. Perhaps we should put our speculations aside and enjoy good music as long as we are privileged enough to gain access to it, and respect the artist’s desire to live their lives the way they choose to.
