And Finally Artist News

Nicki Minaj announces retirement

By Andy Malt | Published on Friday 6 September 2019

Nicki Minaj has shocked fans by announcing her retirement. The rapper tweeted: “I’ve decided to retire and have my family. I know you guys are happy now”.

So that’s that then, the end of a career that began fifteen years ago, grew via a run of impressive mixtapes and guest spots on other people’s tracks, and was then established through a series of patchy albums. She has suggested in lyrics throughout that time that she would leave it all for a simpler life one day, though. And now that time has come.

This all follows a difficult year last year, where she lashed out at Travis Scott for taking a chart position she felt rightfully belonged to her ‘Queen’ album, cancelled a co-headline tour with Future, argued with Tracy Chapman over a sample, and had an ongoing beef with Cardi B, who many see as her natural successor. Perhaps it’s having had time to reflect on all that which has led her to this decision to step back.

Exactly how much of her public life Minaj is actually retiring from isn’t clear. She has various strands to her business, of course. For example, she has a voice role in the upcoming second(!) ‘Angry Birds’ movie. Will she now not promote that? Presumably it goes without saying that retirement mean she’s giving up on music, right? Although she did release a new single in June and reveal that her fifth album was in the works.

So, hey, maybe she’s not retiring at all, and she is in fact preparing to announce her big comeback album, say, later this afternoon. She wouldn’t be the first rapper to spend their retirement carrying on as normal, of course. Look at Jay-Z, he supposedly retired in 2003. It’s probably just a publicity stunt, isn’t it? And look who fell right into the trap. You did. Shame on you.