The 36-year-old singer and rapper Nicki Minaj shocked fans when she tweeted that she is retiring to start a family. She tweeted on September 6,

Nicki Minaj had recently told her Queen Radio listeners that she and her boyfriend Kenneth Perry have already applied for a marriage license and would be wed in "about 80 days." The Trinidadian-born rapper, who grew up in New York and is well known for her bizarre outfits, alter egos and fast flow has been in the entertainment industry for the last decade. 

Since releasing her first album Pink Friday in 2010, she has been nominated for 10 Grammys, earned a Guinness World Record in 2017 for most Billboard Hot 100 entries by a solo female artist, and hauled in five MTV Video Music Awards. 

She explained her combined rapping, and singing incorporated with British alter ego, Roman Zolanski, and Japanese character, Harajuku Barbie, “I was just doing regular-sounding rap that anyone could hear and identify with. But once I started doing all that weird shit – I’m not mad at it because it got everyone’s attention.” 

According to TMZ, DJ Paul believes that her retirement is just a hiatus and that she is “following a long line of hip-hop stars who retired only to eventually return to making music.”