Tinashe’s debut single, the Schoolboy Q collaboration “2 On,” was a top-40 favorite. After that, though, she had a Hot 100 dry spell that she just ended recently with the viral hit “Nasty.” Between those two events, though, Tinashe continued to make well-respected art and build a fan base for herself. As for why it took this long for her to enter the mainstream pop conversation, she’s not quite sure.
Tinashe and Kaytranada had a conversation for Interview, and Kaytranada asked, “So a lot of fans seem to be confused that you haven’t broken through as a mega pop artist until now. Why do you think that is?” Tinashe answered:
“I’m not sure why the zeitgeist has kept me in some type of niche category. But I’m in a great position. I have fans that love me, I’m able to tour, I’m able to make the art I want to make. So I’m pretty satisfied. As much as I want all the success and the accolades, I have such a great career, so I’m thankful. But I don’t know why. It could be the universe. It could be the way society’s set up. Being a Black woman in music is difficult. There’s been a lot of discrepancy over how to market me. In my early days, people were confused by my genre hopping and my lack of commitment to an urban direction.”
He then asked if she felt “pressure to cater to certain tastes,” and she answered, “I used to. Now I have the freedom to do whatever I want. But I did in my early days, like when I was signed to RCA after having just made my first mixtapes. I don’t think it was insidious, but over time I started making more and more compromises. They had these expectations of what kind of artist I was, and the type of music that I was making wasn’t aligning with their vision of either a pop star or an urban star. […] My first song was ‘2 On,’ basically. So right out the gate, the first thing I put out already felt like it was pigeonholing me in all these different ways that I immediately wanted to rebel against. And so, it all went down in such an interesting way.”
Find the full interview here.
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