Teyana Taylor shocked fans at the end of last year when she announced plans to retire from music.
In a new interview with Cam Newton on his BET series Sip ‘N Smoke, Teyana gave some insight as to why she made that decision and if she’s really done with music forever.
via Complex:
“At the end of the day, I’m a mom first,” she explained. “A mom, a wife, a woman. And I think for me, I put in a lot of work. I work very, very hard. So, if you feel unheard and unseen—like how I said earlier with my husband. He sees me, he hears me. I take that shit serious. Everything that I do. So if you’re my husband, or I’m signed, everybody that I’m aligned with should see me. They should hear me. They should feel me. If you don’t see me, hear me, or feel me, it’s a dub for you.”
Taylor explained that most of her frustration came from the label side, saying that she felt unappreciated.
“And I felt like the label wasn’t really hearing me and seeing me,” she continued. “I felt underappreciated. So, for my mental health, my mental well-being, for my kids, let me just put this on ice for a little [bit]. It’s not that I retired permanently. It’s more like, I just don’t feel like I want to move another inch for a company.”
While it’s unfortunate that Taylor wasn’t feeling valued by her label, at least she clarified that she’s not retiring for good.
Back in December of last year, after sharing her Spotify streaming wrap-up on Instagram, Taylor wrote to her fans to express a similar sentiment, saying that she felt under-appreciated and would be “retiring this chapter of my story.”
“I ain’t gone front in times of feeling super under appreciated as a artist, receiving little to no real push from the ‘machine,’ constantly getting the shorter end of the stick, being overlooked,” she wrote at the time. “I’m retiring this chapter of my story with the comfort that i can depart with peace of mind seeing that all the hard work & passion put in was indeed loved & supported somewhere in the world!”
This has been the first update on Taylor’s music status since then, so hopefully she picks the mic back up sometime soon. Watch the full episode of Cam Newton’s Sip ‘N Smoke with Teyana Taylor up top.
Watch the interview below.
