Tinashe calls it “embarrassing” and says she blocks out that she has a collaboration with R. Kelly, while she claims the label pushed Chris Brown onto her 2015 single “Player” in hopes it would help launch her career.
Young artists don’t have a lot of control when it comes to what happens with their music, which can lead to some awkward moments like when Tinashe found herself in the spotlight for collaborations with controversial artists R. Kelly and Chris Brown.
“You think I wanted [to do those songs]?” she asked on the Zach Sang Show in a new interview. “I literally block that R. Kelly song from my mind; I forget that it even exists.”
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“That is so embarrassing,” she continued, thinking about it. “That is so unreal that I even have a song with R. Kelly.”
The collaboration with Kelly, “Let’s Be Real Now,” came out hot on his album; it was hot on the heels of her Chris Brown collabo, “Player,” with both coming out in 2015.
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Brown was still considered a problematic artist by many after his 2009 assault of Rihanna. While Kelly wouldn’t be found guilty of sex trafficking until 2021, there were already enough stories that his reputation was in question even then.
With both tracks coming out back-to-back like they did, Tinashe suddenly became scrutinized as a female artist working with these problematic male artists accused of horrific treatment of women. For the label, though, she thinks they were only seeing how it could help launch her career.
“That song with Chris, that was a song that we all wanted it to be this big moment — this big single,” she said. “So, I feel like in [the label’s] mind they were like, ‘You need the support,’ and he was their biggest artist that they had on rhythmic radio at the time.”
When Sang pointed out that a young artist like Tinashe at the time would have a “lack of control,” she added, “Especially when it comes to singles.”
She said that she was hesitant when it was proposed to her, expressing, “Well this is a pop song, so I really don’t feel like we should put Chris on it like that. That doesn’t compute to me.”
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At the same time, she acknowledged that there’s only so much you can do when you’re in that position as an artist trying to break through. “There’s only so many times you can push back,” she explained. “There’s only so much that you can be like, ‘No, I’m not going to do this’ because you want to be successful as well.”
“You want to put your music out,” she continued. “If this is the way that I’m going to be able to get my art out or my single out, then I’m just going to have to commit to this and convince myself that this is the right thing to do.”
Despite the collaborations intended to help kick her career off, neither track really took off for Tinashe. Instead, she found herself scrutinized and questioned for her collaboration partners, with Sang noticing that the “public perceive[d] it as you doing it willingly.”
Tinashe would go on to leave RCA Records in 2019. She signed with Nice Life Recording Company earlier this year and just released her seventh full-length studio album, “BB/Ang3l” on September 8. She’s been openly vocal about her unhappiness with major labels after her personal experiences.
You can see Tinashe’s full interview below.
