Toni Braxton contemplated retirement, but like Jay-Z, the game kept calling her back.


The R&B songstress, whose debut album was released 16 years ago, couldn’t turn her back on her fans. “I enjoy performing so much that I had to do it,” she tells Walmart Soundcheck.

But there was a moment when she almost decided to hang up the mic like another high-profile artist. “I tried to pull a Jay-Z and say, ‘I’m gonna retire,’” the mother of two reveals. “He couldn’t do it either. It’s in my DNA. I had to come out and perform.”

Braxton’s first album on Atlantic Records, Pulse, is due in February. It will feature collaborations with Robin Thicke and Trey Songz, who duets with her on the lead single “Yesterday.”