At the beginning of April, Griselda lyricist Conway caught his fans by surprise when he unveiled his plans to retire. “After FKTG, GDMM, and EIF4, I’m out,” he declared, alluding to his upcoming albums From A King To A God, God Don’t Make Mistakes, and Everybody Is F.O.O.D. 4. Now, Conway has once again teased his departure from the game, this time shortening the countdown to two more albums — though it’s entirely possible that EIF constitutes as a mixtape, technically.

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While it’s unclear as to what might have motivated his decision to bow out gracefully, it’s curious to see the tweets he highlighted in his recent IG post. In it, The Machine seems frustrated with those who only skim through his catalog, quoting Jay-Z’s eternal “do you fools listen to music or do you just skim through it?” His main problem seemed to stem from those who accused him of being single-minded, with Conway providing a list of potential songs designed to make his haters eat crow. “2 more albums left and [peace],” he writes, seemingly alluding that we’ll appreciate more after he’s gone.

Given how much Conway The Machine clearly respects Jay-Z, perhaps it’s possible that he’s taking a page out of the Jigga Man’s playbook. Lest we forget, Jay was originally meant to retire after The Black Album dropped in 2003. He returned shortly after with Kingdom Come. Should that indeed be the case, perhaps we can take solace in knowing that The Machine’s absence will be temporary — after all, rappers have tried to get out only to be pulled back in time and time again. 

Either way, we still have two more albums to look forward to before his final bow, including his long-awaited Shady Records debut God Don’t Make Mistakes. 

As Ebro Darden tells it during the onset of their Beats 1 conversation, Conway The Machine is looking “dapper even at the crib.” Clearly, the Griselda lyricist has been reaping the spoils of his prolific and triumphant musical run, which is set to continue this Friday with the release of Lulu; you can check out the Alchemist-produced, ScHoolboy Q-assisted “Shoot Sideways” right here. As he tells it, the hard work is only getting started, as his goals remain the primary focus. 

“Keeping my sword sharp, keeping my pen game right, and trying to make my best song,” he reflects. “Every song I want to get better, every album, every EP…I want to be the best ever one day.” He proceeds to break down his dynamic with ScHoolboy, going so far as to tease the potential of a collaborative project one day. “I would love to,” he says. “I don’t object to that. Hopefully we get to that point. I be doing so much, he be doing so much, we ain’t get the chance to lock in the studio for a couple of days. But we see each other in passing, like at Alchemist’s house. We just vibe like that.”

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He also takes a moment to provide an update on his upcoming musical plans. “God Don’t Make Mistakes is the project we doing for Shady, we’re dropping on Shady,” he explains. “My solo. In the meantime, we still gotta keep mashing the gas. I can’t let up. After Lulu I’m giving you that From A King To A God, then [me and Westside Gunn] going to give you Hall & Nash 2.”

“I want people to respect my pen like Eminem pen, or Hov pen,” he continues. “Or Kool G’s pen, or LL’s pen. The top tier elite dudes…I want to be remembered forever in the history books, on that Mount Rushmore of rappers. Having that embrace from Jay and Em, and some of my producer big homies like Premier and Alchemist and Pete Rock, guys like that who really paved the way for the sound people say I’m bringing back, that’s what meaning the most to me.”

When Ebro asks whether Eminem will appear on God Don’t Make Mistakes, Conway breaks it down. “Yeah man, he definitely going to be on there,” confirms The Machine. “Actually, ‘Bang’ was a record off God Don’t Make Mistakes. It got leaked somehow on the internet. It got on Instagram somehow, so we decided to drop it now to put that single out there…That was actually a record for my Shady project.”