A good rule of thumb: never trust an artist who says they’re going to retire. They might mean it in the moment, but history has consistently proven that they always come back. Sometimes, they don’t even last a year into their retirement. All of a sudden, they’re back in the mix teasing their next project. The best you’re likely to get is an artist in a position to finally slow down and make something at their own pace, rather than at the industry standard.

Hip-hop has seen an abundance of rappers change their minds about the prospect of retiring. For example, J. Cole admitted that he couldn’t commit to the idea despite teasing it with The Fall-Off for years. Instead, he explained he was just closing the book on the story he wanted to tell across his career.…