Fans have been waiting more than two-and-a-half years for Schoolboy Q’s Oxymoron follow up, and though that may feel like a long time, they should actually be grateful: It almost never came.
“I stepped away from music for a little bit,” Q told MTV News on Monday, ahead of the release of Blank Face LP. “I toured a whole year. When I came back, my daughter was doing different things, talking different. I’m at the crucial years of her life — she’s only seven years old, so every time I’m gone for a certain amount of time, I come back, she’s doing something new. I got kind of tired of missing that. I almost quit rap. Almost. It almost happened.”
He reached that near-break point when he came back home from his post-Oxymoron tour.
“I was like, I’m not tryna keep missing this stuff. It comes to a point where you starting to put music before your kids and family, and it’s like, that’s not what I signed up for. But at the same time, it’s what pays the bills and it’s what I love to do. My daughter actually loves to see me do it, too.
“I can’t hang it up yet, but it’s getting close to that point. I’m trying to be more so a father than a rapper that just runs around doing interviews and shows and pleasing everybody. And leaving my family hanging.”
Eventually, though, he got back in the studio. That became a lot easier, too, after he put one in his house. He stopped doing interviews, cut down drastically on appearances, and focused on being a dad.
Does this mean retirement could still be imminent?
“I can’t say that,” Q said, when asked if there was a timetable on hanging it up. “I wanted to quit a bunch of times. But the passion and my love for music never left. It’s just me wanting to quit because I wanted to be more of a family man to my daughter. That’s what I do everything for, is her.”
Still, when Q’s album does drop on July 8, fans better savor it and get used to the long break in between projects: “I’m not coming right back again.”
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