Teyana Taylor announces potiental retirement from the music industry; feels underappreciated by label

2020 is coming to an end and now is the time to reflex on how the year has been showing as much gratitude as possible in this crazy year. Specifically, in music,  streaming platforms have their recaps for fans to get an in-depth perspective on their music selection like their top songs, albums and artist listened to for the year. Musical artists can get a recap on how well they streamed on platforms like  Spotify with a “Spotify Wrapped” calculation of their streams for the year, how many countries their music is streamed in, and the number of listeners. R and B artist Teyana Taylor posted her Spotify wrap results with a lengthy caption showing gratitude to her fans showing so much love and support but also shockingly; announcing she is “retiring this chapter of my story with comfort that I can depart with peace of mind” insinuating fans to question why is she retiring with such a good year of 162 million streams and 15.2 million listeners on Spotify.

Teyana went on Instagram live to clarify her post expressing that she meant she feels underappreciated by her label which is G.O.O.D music who has artist music distributed through Def Jam. G.O.OD music also consists of heavy hitter artists like Big Sean, Pusha T, Shock Wes, and the founder Kanye West. Teyana has worked with Kanye West in the past on projects like her past album K.T.S.E., another work of art she expressed frustration on saying the album was incomplete missing several songs due to sampling clearances that were out of her control.

She dropped her 3rd studio album in June 2020 that debut number 8 on the Billboard charts making this her first top 10 album. “the album” had features with Lauryn Hill, Erykah Badu, Future, Missy Elliot Quavo, and more.

The majority of what that post was to warn my label who I’ve been signed to for almost 10 years…'” Everything that you guys see of me, everything that I put out, everything that I do is 100 percent me …’ So yes, I am going to feel underappreciated if I’m putting in 110 percent and my label is giving me 10 percent of that.” Teyana said on Instagram Live.

Artists and fans have shown Teyana Taylor love and support such as Cardi b who said  If you know me then you know Teyana Taylor’s album it’s my favorite of 2020…..I hate that she feels how she feels cause she so talented and the music is so good” and the Game wrote a lengthy post about his love for Teyana Taylor’s music, creativity, and watching her grow in the industry from the time she started at 16. He gave a lot of praise to her last project “THE ALBUM”… your CLASSIC !!! Undeniably YOU. A body of work that was clearly the best R&B album of the year. You know it, I know it & so does your fanbase. Live in your glory & never be detoured by the minds of those weakened by this watered-down era of appreciation. You know I know 1st hand about being the underdog as the odds have been stacked against me my entire career…. but, we didn’t get where we are by things going exactly the way we thought they would. We made it here cause WE believed in our craft when no one else did…

https://www.instagram.com/p/CIdNqEuLxOa/?utm_source=ig_embed

Some speculated this retirement has sparked from the 63rd Grammy nomination announcement where she quote tweeted the recording academy tweet about the nominees for the best R and B album saying: yall were better off just saying best male  R&B album cause all I see is D@#$ in this category.

Y’all was better off just saying best MALE R&B ALBUM cause all I see is dick in this category. https://t.co/LlL769FbTR

— TEYANA M.J. SHUMPERT (@TEYANATAYLOR) November 24, 2020

She then tweeted ‘I’m blasting the @RecordingAcad for failing ALL the women that have been putting in work. Women are clearly being overlooked here. WOMEN PLAYS A BIG PART IN CARRYING R&B.’

Teyana clarified in her Instagram live that this is not about Grammy nominations, her music steams, or not loving her fans but more so her record label not releasing her. “ The crazy part about it is I asked Def Jam to drop me on almost 10 different occasions, straight to their face, up in the building, at the table. Like, ‘Yo, just drop me, because, at this point, I can’t let this kill me”

She feels and understands the frustration of her fans but her priority is her mental stability for the sake of her kids and herself. Until I’m free, until I can get [Def Jam] to release me, yes I want to retire. I don’t want to do this anymore.”