As Nicki Minaj's abrupt retirement announcement caught pretty much everyone off guard, Queen Latifah was no exception when TMZ caught up with the hip-hop pioneer to gauge her thoughts on the announcement.
"Is she retiring?" the Queen responded in shock as the outlet asked if she was upset to see Nicki stepping away from her career.
"She must be in love and happy," Latifah reasoned, adding that the general public should, "Let her live. She's been grinding for a long time."
She left off with a glimmer of hope for Nicki's career, adding that "once you're a rapper, you're always a rapper. She'll be back. Let her live first. Let her live some life first."
Minaj dropped the bomb early last week when she confirmed that she wanted to focus on starting her family with fiancé Kenneth Petty. She would later apologize to fans for the "insensitive" manner in which she delivered the news, opting to do so via a tweet. She promised that she would dive deeper into her decision via her Queen Radio platform on Beats 1.
"I'm still right here," she comforted in another tweet. "Still madly in love with you guys and you know that [...] the tweet was abrupt and insensitive. I apologize."