Chingy Quit Music Because He Was ‘Sick’ Of It

Rapper Chingy has been out of the spotlight for the past three years, and now the St. Louis native is revealing why.

The 31-year-old has been plagued with rumors of an alleged sexual relationship with a transsexual male as of late, but behind the headlines there were deeper issues surrounding his self-inflicted departure from the spotlight.

“When I was gone for the three and a half years, off the scene, people really got to understand that I have a personal life, and in that personal life I lost a lot of close people to me,” he told SOHH.com “I lost three of my closest friends, I lost my auntie, I lost my little cousin, I lost my girl cousin, I lost my granddaddy, I lost a couple of friends. People don’t see that. They just see that you don’t have a song on the radio and you [haven't released] a video. They don’t see your real life and the things you go through.”

Losing both family and friends drove Chingy into a state of depression, where his career was the last thing on his mind. “I was sick of the whole life,” he continued. “I just got sick of it. I was still working on music but I just didn’t care about being in the light because I was going through so much.”

The ‘Right Thurr’ rapper has since regained interest in music, and has even mended his relationship with Ludacris, after cutting ties with his Disturbing the Piece imprint. At the height of his fame, Chingy sold 2 million copies of his ‘Jackpot’ debut released in 2003. He is currently prepping the independent release of his fifth album ‘No Risk No Reward. -KING-