Written By Saran Lawson

Hater her or love her Nicki Minaj is undoubtedly the reigning Queen of Rap. Her body of work and her mark on music and Hip Hop music speaks for itself. It’s no mistake that every modern female rapper in the last decade has followed the Pink Print of Onika Maraj; Soon to be Petty. It’s evident in fashion, style, and even song cadence that record companies are following Young Money’s example in the success of Nicki’s career. Women in rap are taking over the game in more ways than one. However, the general of the femcee takeover is retiring as announced today through her twitter:

“I’ve decided to retire & have my family. I know you guys are happy now. To my fans, keep reppin me, do it til da death of me, X in the box – cuz ain’t nobody checkin me. Love you for LIFE”  The latter part of this tweet referenced her verse on “Girl on Fire” where she featured on the remix of Alicia Keys’ hit ballad. 

This news comes just a few weeks after announcing that she and her fiance, Kenneth Petty, would be tying the knot soon on Queen Radio. I can understand her wanting to step out of the limelight to focus on her family. The soon to be 37-year-old rapper has spent a huge chunk of her career and relationships in front of a lens. I can’t lie, it’s a little inconvenient that one of our strongest players in rap has decided to step down. I would like to think that Nicki’s success against her male counterparts has made it clear that, “anything you can do I can do better”. She is responsible for the playing field being leveled a little more for women in hip hop in the last 10 years. 

“We filed for the marriage license and we still had to pick it up and I was traveling, by the time I came back, we had to renew it again. From that time, you have 90 days to get married. That was about a week ago, so now I have about 80 days.” By the way, I didn’t know that the 90-day Fiance rule applied to Americans also. I had no idea that after filing for a marriage license, you had a certain amount of time to say your nuptials. I learn something from Nicki every day ( insert laughing emoji). 

Fans are definitely already devastated to see her go. Comments from the popular gossip site The Shade Room, have already begun to mourn Nicki’s departure from music. Hopefully, she takes the term retirement lightly, and she comes back like Jay-z and the Jonas Brothers did. I can already see her dropping loose singles because she misses music. 

Oneika “Nicki Minaj” Maraj has released four studio albums her first Pink Friday was released in 2010 where she won her 2011 American Music Awards. Her next album Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded, where she won American Music Awards in the same categories was released in 2012. The Pink Print, her third successful body of work was released in 2014 and Queen that released to mixed reviews in 2018. Her three mixtapes include: Playtime Is Over, Sucka Free and Beam Me Up Scotty. Not to mention that she has over 100 singles. Minaj has won 10 awards, including her 2 American Music Awards in 2011 for Favorite Rap Artist and Favorite Hip Hop Album. Nothing but love and good wishes coming from me to Nicki, but I hope she changes her mind after a few years. I’m going to miss her not releasing new music.