It's a true testament to how things can fall apart, even in the seemingly unshakeable bond between Teyana Taylor and Kanye West. Almost five years since the actress spoke out about feeling "underappreciated" by Kanye's record label, G.O.O.D Music, Teyana has revealed that the two are on good terms as of late, despite the controversial reputation of the "Flashing Lights" rapper.
"I don't have to agree with everything he does or says, but I'm not going to abandon him and be like, 'Yeah, screw that motherf--ker,'" she told Vanity Fair in an interview published on Jan. 13. "My brothers do things I don't agree with... I don't get into any of that."
Although the 35-year-old, who starred alongside Kanye's ex-wife Kim Kardashian in Hulu's All's Fair, would never publicly bash the Yeezy founder, she's not afraid to give it to him straight in-person as any true friend would. "If you want a real answer, you ask me," she continued. "So if he asks me something, he knows he's gonna get a real answer. I do my stuff behind the scenes and do what I need to do to help."
But above all, the "Gonna Love Me" hitmaker—who is a mother to daughters Iman "Junie" Tayla Shumpert Jr., 10, and Rue Rose Shumpert, 5, with ex-husband Iman Shumpert—believes in staying in her own lane. As she put it, "I'm in my business and I drink my water."
The "Runaway" rapper signed Teyana to his record label in 2012 while she was working on his album My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. But after releasing her third album titled The Album, the choreographer shocked fans by announcing that she was retiring from music in December 2020.
"I ain't gone front in times of feeling super underappreciated as an artist, receiving little to no real push from the 'machine,' constantly getting the shorter end of the stick, being overlooked...the list goes on," she wrote in a December 2020 Instagram post celebrating her more than 160 million music streams for the year. "I'm retiring this chapter of my story with the comfort that I can depart with peace of mind, seeing that all the hard work & passion put in was indeed loved & supported somewhere in the world!"
Though she bid a final farewell to music, Teyana thanked the fans that made her career so special. "To all my supporters from day 1 & all my new ones, I love you and I thank you for everything & don't worry...y'all know all hustlers have the understanding that when one door closes, another will open," she continued. "Either that or I'm picking the locks, petunia! So wassup."
One year after her career change, Teyana opened up about why she left the label. "I am going to feel underappreciated if I'm putting in 110 percent and my label is giving me...what, 10 percent of that," she said during an April 29 episode of Cam Newton's Sip an’ Smoke Web series. "I put in a lot of work [and] I felt like the label wasn't really hearing me and seeing me. I felt underappreciated. It's not that I retired permanently; it's more like I don't want to move another inch for a company."
And as the Straw actress predicted, another door did open, presenting one opportunity after another. Indeed, Teyana took home the award for Best Supporting Female Actor in a Motion Picture during the 2026 Golden Globes ceremony on Jan. 11 for her portrayal of Perfidia Beverly Hills in One Battle After Another. In her powerful speech, the mom of two shared an emotional message to her fellow "brown sisters and little brown girls."
"Our softness is not a liability. Our death is not that," she said from the stage. "It's not too much. Our light does not need permission to shine. We belong in every room we walk into. Our voices matter and our dreams deserve space."
