Usually when you quit your job, it's a case of sheepishly handing over a tightly folded notice to your boss and spending the subsequent five minutes squirming as the expression on their face slowly morphs from standard Monday morning indifference to outraged betrayal. Not so Yasiin Bey, formerly known as Mos Def, who has just delivered his one year notice of retirement from both film and music via KanyeWest.com.Initially, this seems a somewhat incongruous setting for the message until you remember A) Yeezy and Bey go waaaaay back, to the days of Kweli collaborations and Nina Simone remixes, and B) This is Yasiin Bey and he can do what he wants. Which apparently includes overstaying his South African visitors permit and then attempting to use documentation that was deemed invalid by the S.A. authorities and resulted in Bey's detainment when he finally decided to bounce from the country.In response to the arrest, which he asserts was illegal and politically motivated, Bey dropped a ten minute "Retirement Remix" of Kanye's recent Kendrick collab, "No More Parties in L.A.," punnily retitled as "No More Parties in S.A.," and it is basically a spoken word acapella addressing his current predicament. You can listen to it on the Kanye West website.Firstly, can all future announcements be made in this fashion please? Your mother's birthday. Godparents' anniversary. The birth of a distant cousin. Losing your virginity. From now on, nothing's official unless it's delivered via Kanye West's website and there's at least four fire bars accompanying it. As for Yasiin's withdrawal from rap, if it's true we're losing a titan of the game. But he's promised one more album before he disappears into his hermitude so keep your beady little eyes peeled on—where else?—Yeezy's homepage.
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