Nicki Minaj dropped a hell of a bombshell when she announced on Twitter her sudden retirement from all things music and hip-hop in order to focus on having a family.
Given how she released new music back in June and has talked about working on a new album on a number of occasions, this out-of-the-blue tweet from the rapper is quite the shock.
Unsurprisingly, this retirement announcement was met with a range of reactions. Among the many Nicki Minaj fans supporting her decision to embrace familial responsibility are skeptical folk calling this as nothing more than a publicity stunt for attention before she makes an inevitable comeback.
It may well be publicity stunt, we’ll never know for sure. As far as we know, she’s not married nor does she have any kids so perhaps her tweet was a bit premature.
Say she does end up having kids, other huge music stars like Cardi B, Queen Bey, Adele, Jennifer Lopez and Pink have all had kids while still managing to have massively successful careers so there’s every possibility that Nicki could make a big return to hip-hip at some point in the future.
However, there’s also the possibility that Nicki, you know, actually intends to retire. After all, she did foreshadow taking her daughter to preschool in the lyrics of ‘All Things Go’ and pondered going out while still at the top in ‘Moment 4 Life’.
Throw in how she’s become a bit of a lightning rod of attention for being increasingly critical of the industry and media over the last few years, it’s not hard to see why she would be over everything and is keen to do something else.
But by dismissing Nicki’s retirement announcement as nothing more than an attention-grabbing stunt while insisting she’ll be back in no time, we’re really no better than a bunch of puffy-chested toxic bros.
For someone who already has the spotlight constantly on her, it can really take a toll when no one believes she wants to call it a day on hip-hop so she can focus on starting a family.
Let Nicki Minaj live her life in peace. If she wants to retire and start a family, good on her. And if she decides that she wants to come back to hip-hop at some time in the future then that’s totally up to her and not what some whiny folk on the internet want.