Teyana Taylor shocked the music world last year when she announced her retirement from the music industry.
At the time, Taylor made it clear that she was tired of battling with her label and feeling unappreciated. This week on Cam Newton’s BET series “Sip’ N Smoke,” she went into greater detail about the decision to leave music behind.
“At the end of the day, I’m a mom first,” she told Newton. “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 sh*t 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, who was signed to G.O.O.D. Music and Def Jam says the label did not value her worth.
“And I felt like the label wasn’t really hearing me and seeing me. 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,” she continued.
Back in December, Taylor hopped on Instagram Live to put Def Jam on blast.
“I asked Def Jam to drop me on almost 10 different occasions. Straight to the face. Up in the building,” she said at the time. “At this point, I can’t let this kill me. Granted, to my fans, I think that, you know — and I can see how my message can come across but at the same time, I feel like it’s a tiny bit selfish to say, ‘What about your fans? Do it for your fans.’ Baby, I gotta do it for my mental health. I have to do it for my emotional health. I have to do it for my kids so I can stay alive for my kids.”
We eagerly await her return.
