WASHINGTON — Fresh off the release of his highly anticipated eighth studio album, Drake has announced he'll be stepping away from music for a year or so to deal with ongoing health issues.
“I probably won’t make music for a little bit,” he revealed Friday during a new episode of his SiriusXM series Table For One. “I’m going to be real with you. I need to focus on my health, first and foremost, and I’ll talk about that soon enough. Nothing crazy, but just like, you know, I want people to be healthy in life.”
The Canadian rapper went on to explain, "I've been having the craziest problems, for years, with my stomach."
"I need to focus on my health and I need to get right, and I'm going to do that," Drake said.
While he's planning to "lock the door to the studio" for "maybe a year, maybe a little longer," Drake said there's also a lot of other things that he'd love to focus on in the meantime.
Drake is no stranger to an inventive roll-out: the OVO rapper has a preference for surprise drops (last year’s “Honesty, Nevermind” is evidence enough). But this year, he gave fans a bit of a heads up for his highly-anticipated “For all the Dogs” album. At select dates, on stage at his massively popular “It’s All A Blur” Tour, Drake teased collaborations with Nicki Minaj and Bad Bunny. The latter marks the duo’s first collaboration since 2018’s “MÍA,” where Drake’s Spanish-language singing was heard ’round the world.
Last month, Drake postponed tour dates for the second time in Denver, New Orleans, Columbus and Nashville. It's unclear whether his break from music will impact new dates for those shows.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.