Grammy-nominated rapper Chika has announced her retirement from the music industry.
The 24-year-old star – who was in contention for Best New Artist at the 2021 Grammy Awards – has decided to step back from her music career due to the impact it was having on her mental health.
In a statement, she told fans that “the mental toll being in the industry has taken on me is not something you bounce back from easily.”
The poet and songwriter whose full name is Jane Chika Oranika, signed to Warner Records in 2019, after garnering attention on social media.
She went on to issue a lengthy statement hitting out at those who were “rejoicing in the decline of her mental health” following her news.
She wrote: “Today I told Twitter [about retiring].
“What followed was a hoard of psychotic fans rejoicing in the decline of my mental health, harassing me as if I spoke to them first. It’s not f****** cool, it’s not “trolling” or “stan culture”, you’re pushing people to a point of no return. (sic)”
Chika only dropped her most recent EP, ‘Once Upon A Time’, last month, which followed 2017’s ‘Full Bloom // A Poetry’ and last year’s ‘Industry Games’.
Cardi B reached out to the young rapper encouraging her to reconsider her retirement.
She tweeted, “Take it as this ,Is the devil trying you or God testing your faith .I have won and accomplished so much and yet people try to strip everything I work hard for yet I have to think to myself do I quit & let people laugh for me being weak or get them mad by winning?”
Chika has featured on tracks for the likes of JoJo and Stevie Wonder, she also found a fan in Snoop Dogg, who asked her to write him a song.
He told her: “I’m here to tell you I f*** with your music. I love your s***.
“I play it, I enjoy it. I wanted to tell you that. I didn’t want to, like, let you hear about it. I want you [to] hear it from me, from the Dogg’s mouth.”
Chika is known for being vocal about political and societal issues and was detained by police at a Los Angeles protest over the police killing of George Floyd last year.
