iLoveMakonnen has announced his retirement from music, though he seems to be leaving the door open for other opportunities under a different moniker.
Taking to Instagram on Thursday (September 5), the Atlanta native made the announcement — specifically saying he was retiring “iLoveMakonnen,” which could mean he’ll one day return with a new stage name or venture.
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“I am retiring iLoveMakonnen,” he said. “Thank you all for ur support and interests over the years. It’s time I move on and go live my life. Heavy in the streets is my last song.”
In his caption, he added: “Thank you for being apart of my musical journey! [heart] see u in the streets filled with art.”
This isn’t the first time iLoveMakonnen announced he was leaving the game. Back in 2016, after declaring the “rap game wack,” he stated that he’s retiring.
“Rap game Wack, everyone flexed up except Makonnen, that’s why I’m retiring. Lol this so good…The game don’t need Me, the game need more like me , more that will be themselves and not afraid like everyone else! It’s all love…It’s ok guys, u have me until [20]17,” he wrote in a series of tweets.
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The musician also expressed concern over what he feels is the need in Hip Hop to be negative and diss your peers.
“It’s like for me to stay, I have to diss all these rappers and be negative, I don’t wanna do that, so I’ll move on. How positive is that,” he tweeted.
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He continued to make music, however, but more recently called out some of his peers for allegedly turning their backs on him when he needed their support the most – only to come back around once he began making waves with NBA YoungBoy.
Last August, Makonnen took to Instagram to call out Metro Boomin, Swae Lee and Post Malone for ignoring him until he dropped the widely successful YoungBoy collaboration, “Parasites.”
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“I’m HIM and I Been HERE!” he captioned the post. “I ain’t do shit to yall! Y’all turned y’all back on me and held hands together, [nail polish emoji] unfollowed me and everything, now y’all see me with YB(the realist n-gga on earth) and start hitting me up like it’s all good.
“[mind-blown emoji] Damn,That shit painful to see, especially after we came up together in Atlanta in 2014 [peeking emoji, nail polish emoji] @postmalone @swaelee @metroboomin @nba_youngboy.”
Makonnen also shared screenshots of his DMs with the artists mentioned above, all of whom appeared to have ghosted him until his new single was released in late July. Though the rest have yet to respond, Swae Lee replied in the post’s comment section.
“Bro I was saying that to you goofy not for any reason besides spreading love I’m good in the game ,I knew you when you was throwing up on shrooms bro relax tf I saw you on the TL heard the new jam and privately told you it was hard don’t be that guy [ok emoji] that’s funny though bro fr,” the Rae Sremmurd hitmaker wrote.
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A few hours later, he added: “We can chop it up anytime you see me though I don’t do the public drama shit stay up.”
