Tinashe has collaborated with a variety of artists over the years but there are two in particular she’s not proud of: R. Kelly and Chris Brown.
On Wednesday (September 12), the “2 On” singer reflected on working with the men who both have been accused of abuse while in a conversation on the Zach Sang Show.
Both collabs arrived in 2015 in the early days of Tinashe’s career, with the Breezy-assisted “Player” coming just before the R. Kelly-assisted “Let’s Be Real Now.” Both tracks were orchestrated by her then-label RCA Records.
“You think I wanted to [do those songs]?” she began. “I literally block out that R. Kelly song from my mind. I forget that it even exists. That is so embarrassing. That is so unreal that I even have a song with R. Kelly. That’s so embarrassing. Yes that was labely! And I was so young too. I feel like I did that song when I just signed to that label. I was probably like 20. That was crazy.”
She continued: “You [lack a lot of control in that situation.] And especially when it comes to singles like the song with Chris – that was a song that we all wanted to be this big moment, this big single.
“So I feel like in [the label’s] mind, they were like, ‘You need the support.’ And he was like their biggest artist that they had on rhythmic radio at the time. And to me, I was like, ‘Well this is a pop song. So I really don’t feel like we should put Chris on it. That doesn’t compute to me.’ But I don’t know!”
@zachsangshow “I block out that song from my mind” @Tinashe on working with R. Kelly #tinashe#rkelly#embarrassing#zachsangshow#zachsang#fyp#foryou @Amp ♬ original sound – Zach Sang Show
This isn’t the first time Tinashe has spoken about Chris Brown following their collab. In 2016, the singer unfollowed him after he called out Kehlani for posting about her suicide attempt on social media.
Admitting it in an interview shortly afterward, Tinashe said: “It’s not a big deal to me. I don’t think that follows on Twitter are a big deal. That’s just me.”
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She said that the whole situation with Kehlani was overplayed on social media. “It was just a lot,” she explained. “I feel like it’s always hard when everything that’s really personal is just on social media in general. It’s just a messy situation. It’s not nice.”
The Los Angeles native also said that she believed she and Brown were on good terms. “If I see him, I would love to speak to him,” she said. “I would love for him to reach out. I have absolutely nothing against him.”
Chris didn’t seem to agree, however. “I hope she talked about ‘HER’ career for most of this interview ‘WHOISHAE’ TINASHE,” he wrote in the comments section under a post about the interview.
“I hope they rehearsing for those performances give her credit though, 30 16 year old hobbit face ass. WE WANT MUSIC, WE WANT MUSIC, WE WANT MUSIC!! TEACH ME HOW TO JERK FACE ASS.”
