Tinashe Is Reinventing What It Means to Be a Popstar
After 17 years in the music industry, and a staggering 24 years in entertainment, Tinashe finally is getting the attention she deserves. While she has long since made a name for herself in the alternative R&B scene, and her releases have consistently received positive feedback from critics, it is rare for her songs to chart. The release of her recent single Nasty may have changed all of that, as while it was still positively received critically, it was also her first song as a soloist to enter the Billboard Hot 100 — an entire decade after the release of her first single.
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The Early Years
Many people may only be starting to recognise Tinashe’s name, but do not be fooled into thinking that means she is only beginning her career. She started as a child actor, making appearances in Avatar: The Last Airbender, Two and a Half Men, a handful of animated TV shows, Justin Bieber’s Baby music video, and as the motion capture performance for Holly, one of the main characters in The Polar Express.
Within a few years, she had secured a place in the mildly successful girl group The Stunners alongside names like Hayley Kiyoko, who she performed with from the ages of 14 to 18. As a soloist, she signed to RCA Records, a company she would stay with for 7 years, before parting ways over creative differences in 2019.
During her time with RCA Records, Tinashe would have various successes with songs like 2 On (which currently sits at 229 million views on YouTube), No Drama (thirty-seven million views) and Superlove (thirty-two million views). Despite these high numbers, her album sales underperformed, and these kinds of view counts were sporadic at best and declined over time.
Recently, Tinashe has talked about the pressures of being signed to a large label at an early age and giving up creative control. In an interview with the Zach Sang Show, Tinashe spoke about her embarrassment looking back on her collaborations with R. Kelly and Chris Brown, which were pushed by RCA, both because she found working with them morally objectionable, but also because she felt the record company cared more about featuring more popular artists to boost sales, than her artistic integrity.
Looking back on her earlier releases now, it is easy to see her lack of enthusiasm compared to more recent performances and begs the question of how many artists are collaborating with offensive characters, as well as releasing uninspired music because of contractual obligations.
On Instagram, a post went viral which mentioned Tinashe’s ‘embarrassment’ over these collaborations, but failed to give much context, prompting Chris Brown himself to mock Tinashe in the comments, insinuating that he was more famous than her with the statement ‘name 5 Tinashe songs or die… Everybody [is] dead.’ It must be said, while Tinashe herself knows she is by no means an A-List celebrity, I truly could not name 5 Chris Brown songs if asked. I could, however, name at least nine different violent crimes Chris Brown has been arrested and or charged for, if that is a game he wants to play.
A few years later, several stars (including Tinashe) unfollowed Chris Brown following his public mocking of the singer Kehlani’s suicide attempt, prompting Brown to target Tinashe once again, this time ridiculing her appearance. His actions arguably only further prove Tinashe’s initial point and fundamentally ignore the issue at hand, which is that many young creatives become excited about the prospect of having a larger platform for their work, only to find that their art suffers in the long run when it is too late.
Another major issue regarding record labels that Tinashe has spoken about is marketability. In an interview with W Magazine, Tinashe said, ‘When I was at my last record label, they did not necessarily agree on how they should promote me, which radio stations my music should play on.
They would have different teams working for assorted styles of music, and they would be like, “Well, should we give this to the pop department? Or do we give this to the urban department?” It never even occurred to me that I would have to choose a genre.’ She has described her music as ‘pop star music’ with various other influences, despite many outlets describing her sound as R&B. Tinashe spoke about how label executives saw her as ‘confused’ about her direction, while she stayed firm in her desire to continue to try new avenues and blend genres.
The Move to Independence
A few years after these statements, Tinashe doubled down on her desire to genre blend, stating ‘I am going to go as far as to say we need to abolish genres in general. I think that the way that many of them came to be and have continued to progress is very much so based on race and the segregation of music based on race.
By putting artists either in an urban category or an R&B category or rap category, these really general umbrellas that we use to define different genres —it creates a huge sense of isolation for the creative when they’re trying to experiment, especially for creatives that don’t necessarily feel like they fall into one of the genres, which was my experience.’
It is this statement that explains Tinashe’s career shift, as after leaving RCA Records, she began to release music independently, relishing having full creative control and power. This is something we have also seen with one of pop’s most recent successes; Chappell Roan, who struggled to make a name for herself in the music industry for a decade before becoming an overnight sensation.
In the months between leaving The Stunners and signing to RCA Records, Tinashe released various independent Mixtapes, with Black Water in particular receiving praise from critics. Soon after Black Water’s release, Vice published a piece on Tinashe, writing that ‘you might not know Tinashe yet.
She will not make your year-end lists […]. That is okay, because next year she will undoubtedly release a re-introduction project that will get people’s attention.’ For fans who have long felt Tinashe has been underrated in the mainstream pop world, this quote is bittersweet to read, because Tinashe did not necessarily get a lot of people’s attention in the years following, and that was not for lack of talent.
The article commends Tinashe’s skills at singing, writing, dancing, producing, recording, and creating and editing her visuals, as well as how she taught herself these skills through online tutorials and trial and error, all things which she would come back around to following a return to releasing music independently.
BB/ANG3L and QUANTUM BABY
Nasty has gone positively viral, with TikTok dance routines and memes like ‘Which characters perfectly matched each other’s freak?’ sneaking their way into everyone’s algorithm. The song initially debuted at number 90 on the Billboard Hot 100 (making it her most successful solo release yet). However, at the time of writing this piece, it currently sits at number 61 and only seems to be gaining more traction. Nasty will feature on Tinashe’s upcoming album QUANTUM BABY, which will be the second instalment in a planned conceptual trilogy (following BB/ANG3L) and is set to be released on August 16th.
Since gaining musical independence, Tinashe also released the album 333, an album which saw Tinashe infusing the stylings of alternative R&B, lo-fi, alternative pop, trip-hop and drum and bass, each of which she has continued to incorporate into her songs. On X, Tinashe described BB/ANG3L as being about beginning anew, shedding old layers, rawness, and freshness, with the accompanying visuals reflecting this.
The music videos for the album featured minimalist sets, neutral colour palettes and reduced numbers of backup dancers. Compared to her releases with RCA records, which often featured multiple location changes, expensive cars and jewellery and flashing lights, which appealed to a wider, more mainstream audience, her recent releases have focussed on authenticity. In an interview with Nylon, Tinashe shared: that BB/ANG3L ‘has a very personal approach. It does not feel performative or like there is a lot of extras. It is just down to the raw emotion.’
The visuals that accompany QUANTUM BABY are a stark contrast to this, as Tinashe has become more comfortable and confident in her independence. The album cover and music videos for this album have been very maximalist, have a clear Mad Max style, displaying beaten-up cars, vast deserts, shredded clothes, broken-down gas stations, shady bars, and futuristic drones. Her newest release Getting No Sleep also features a same-sex kiss, one of the first major representations of Tinashe’s bisexuality in her videos.
Tinashe has stated that ‘QUANTUM BABY is about getting to know me on a deeper level. It is about exploring who I am as a person and who I am as an artist. I have never been one to be put into a box, so the name […] encompasses all the various parts that makeup who I am as a creative,’ alluding to her rejection of label and genre conventions, to which she no longer must adhere.
The video for Nasty is also reminiscent of the visuals seen in Naturally, which was heavily inspired by The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. X also features Tinashe in nu-metal fashion, while Under (Back To My Heart) has distinctive early 2000s video game graphics; each of these appealing to more niche audiences.
In the last month, Tinashe has continued to promote her upcoming album, as well as expressed an interest in collaborating with Normani (another hugely underrated popstar) and released her strain of cannabis. In a time where success is often measured only by sales and Spotify listens, with many artists re-releasing the same tracks with slightly different packaging and accompaniments simply to dominate the music market, artists like Tinashe are proving that success can exist in less crass ways.
She has shown longevity and ingenuity, boasts incredible accolades, has a dedicated fanbase, is easily one of the most versatile artists working right now and has made history as one of the only Black female artists to chart independently. Tinashe could be reinventing what it means to be a popstar — thriving while being outspoken, solely in charge of her creative output and not allowing trends to dictate her work. Vulture have even declared this the time of the long-awaited ‘Tinashe Renaissance,’ something only time can tell, but that I am sure many of us will be crossing our fingers for.
Sources:
Browley, Jasmine. (2024, June 14). Matching Her Freak: Tinashe Is Launching Her Own Cannabis Brand. https://www.essence.com/news/money-career/tinashe-cannabis-rhythm/
Castro, Danilo. (2024, June 11). Tinashe Scores First Solo Entry On Billboard Hot 100 With ‘Nasty.’ https://www.hotnewhiphop.com/814760-tinashe-scores-first-solo-entry-billboard-hot-100-nasty-hip-hop-news
Mahadevan, Tara. (2020, Aug 04). Tinashe Says We Need to ‘Abolish’ All Music Genres. https://www.complex.com/music/a/cmplxtara-mahadevan/tinashe-says-we-need-to-abolish-music-genres
Marine, Brooke. (2022, May 19). Tinashe Won’t Let You Box Her In. https://www.wmagazine.com/culture/tinashe-music-interview-2022
Nostro, Lauren. (2013, Dec 13). Tinashe: Are You Ready? https://www.vice.com/en/article/6w7x46/tinashe-black-water-interview
Strauss, Matthew. (2024, June 28). Tinashe Confirms Album Release Date, Shares Video for New Song “Getting No Sleep”: Watch. https://pitchfork.com/news/tinashe-confirms-album-release-date-shares-video-for-new-song-getting-no-sleep-watch/
Williams, Kyann-Sian. (2013, Sep 23). Tinashe on “Embarrassing” Time She Was Forced to Work With R. Kelly and Chris Brown. https://www.nme.com/news/music/tinashe-recalls-being-forced-to-work-with-r-kelly-chris-brown-response-3498033
Zhan, Jennifer. (2024, May 30). Is Somebody Gonna Match Tinashe’s Freak? https://www.vulture.com/article/tinashe-nasty-viral-dance-quantum-baby.html