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[Lazarus]

Tinashe received many a side eyes and girl byes from the Internet Tuesday morning (June 13) when her comments about colorism and the black community surfaced. The 24-year-old singer/scribe, who received a warm reception for her 2014 debut album Aquarius, discussed the false starts she?s experienced in her career.

It?s been 18 months since the half-Danish and Zimbabwean artist announced her sophomore album Joyride would be released, yet fans still haven?t heard the project. And while many are aware of the difficulty of the music business, the ?2 On? singer says there?s an additional challenge she experiences due to her being mixed race.

?There?s colorism involved in the black community, which is very apparent,? Tinashe said. ?It?s about trying to find a balance where I?m a mixed woman, and sometimes I feel like I don?t fully fit into the black community; they don?t fully accept me, even though I see myself as a black woman. That disconnect is confusing sometimes. I am what I am.?

Despite being hand-picked by Janet Jackson to perform at a tribute concert, opening up for Nicki Minaj on her Pinkprint tour and working with artists such as Chris Brown and A$AP Rocky, Tinashe said she feels this industry only has room for a few female artists.

?There are hundreds of [male] rappers that all look the same, that sound the same, but if you?re a black woman, you?re either Beyonc? or Rihanna. It?s very, very strange.?

Shortly after Tinashe?s interview went public, Twitter began to weigh in and deduced colorism isn?t to blame for her career pitfalls.



wait.... tinashe blamed colorism for why she doesn't have a career? pic.twitter.com/A5Q053UO4Y

? some MILQU? (@kelloqqz) June 12, 2017
Tinashe has had it way easier than Sevyn. Sevyn does it all on her own with no support and never ever bitches publicly.

? Imogen Heap. (@ShayGizzleXO) June 12, 2017
Tinashe is talented but bringing up colorism as to why her career isn't taking off doesn't make sense. Since colorism doesn't apply to her.

? Cole Turner's wife (@WickedBeaute) June 12, 2017
Tinashe tried to blame colorism in the black community for her poor album sales. Don't nobody wanna hear that baby whispering music.

? Black&Bougie-------- (@NeWWave_Female) June 13, 2017

Poor Tinashe. She's been receiving backlash for her colorism comments.

[FAMÈ]

It's true though. People think she's white.

[Nine]

She's stupid.

[MelMel]

p

[fedswatchin]

What about a DARK girl like kelly or sevyn

Those are the ones that are really affected

[LOONA.]

But at what part did she blame the state of her career on colorism?



   

[Opposites Attract.]

It doesn't help that she went from creating alternative R&B to that dreadful corny pop shit.

[SouravMay]

She's not African American and it shows. She has a different culture than people with historically black American roots.

[fedswatchin]

here we go

[yummy]

It doesn't sound like she blaming colorism, just speaking from her own experience.

She also spoke about every black female artist being relegated to mimicking Beyonce or Rihanna, why are the girls skipping over that?

[Lazarus]

Tinashe: 'If you?re a black singer, you?re either Beyonce or Rihanna'

Interviewing Tinashe in 2017 is to witness patience and resolve in action. Despite releasing a handful of pop-R&B bangers (the DJ Mustard co-produced 2 On; certified bop Player; current single Flame); a coterie of elegant, so-called alt-R&B jams (all of 2015?s Amethyst mixtape); and being hailed by the likes of NME and Pitchfork as the next Aaliyah, her career has unquestionably stalled.

Joyride, the follow-up to 2014?s critically lauded debut Aquarius, has sat unreleased by her label since it was announced 18 months ago. Singles have come and gone; various collaborations (Tinie Tempah, KDA, erm, Enrique Iglesias) have barely charted; and here we are, in the belly of the beast, AKA her label RCA?s west London offices, quietly fuming. Or at least I am. Tinashe, slowly working her way through an English breakfast tea, has no time for negativity.

?Things haven?t always gone according to my original plan,? she says calmly, ?but that?s life, and things change.? Any normal person in this situation might want to flip a table in frustration, I suggest. ?However long it takes, I know I will get to my end goal,? she says. ?I?m never going to stop. I will make music forever.? To prove her point, the background image on her phone is a generic picture of a Grammy, and it will stay like that until she can swap it for one of her own. ?It?s been like that for years!? she screams in mock horror.

Such unshakeable determination has defined 24-year-old Tinashe Kachingwe?s life so far. A budding actor and dancer from the age of five, her parents ? Zimbabwean-immigrant father Michael and Danish mother Aimie (TinasheMomma on Instagram) ? uprooted from Kentucky to Los Angeles to keep up with her auditions. ?I was very aware of my parents and our financial situation,? she says of the pressure. ?We always figured it out, but I knew we couldn?t afford to live in Los Angeles. My parents are from Iowa, and we were barely getting by in LA.?

As the acting roles piled up, including a recurring role on sitcom Two and a Half Men, Tinashe quit school. ?There was a lot of misplaced jealousy, so I didn?t want to be there any more,? she shrugs. In 2007, she joined the Stunners, a girl group briefly signed to Columbia whose greatest achievement was opening for Justin Bieber on 20 dates of his first world tour.

Being in a band streamlined Tinashe?s focus towards music. It also gave her an early insight into the world of production: ?I learned how to record in big studios and how to engineer and create songs.? After they split in 2011, she taught herself Pro Tools from YouTube tutorials, creating her first mixtape, 2012?s In Case We Die, in her home studio. That helped her to land a deal with RCA, which, for Tinashe, coincided with the realisation that her thirst for knowledge wasn?t always going to be seen as a positive. ?There?s a lot of sexism in the music business,? she says, calmly flattening the creases in her floor-length silk coat. ?A lot of sexism. As far as female producers or female engineers ? when you?re in these studios, it?s all men. It is so rare that they?d not even expect me to have an opinion.?

That studio-based sexism is something she feels also permeates the music industry more generally, and has been a factor in her stop-start career so far. ?It?s so much easier for male artists, I know it is,? she says. In early 2016, months after Joyride?s announcement, a Twitter message, apparently from Tinashe, emerged claiming that part of the hold-up was down to her label focusing on ?Zany?, AKA the newly solo Zayn Malik. ?I sent that message, yeah, that RCA was focused on Zayn? They were! But I have nothing against him; more power to him.?

Despite high-profile nods of respect via tour support slots with Katy Perry and Nicki Minaj, collaborations with Britney Spears (?An icon?), and being hand-picked by Janet Jackson to perform at her 2015 BET awards tribute (?I died ? Dead?), she feels that her male counterparts have been less supportive. ?Male artists don?t really co-sign female artists like that, and if they do it?s always like, ?Are they ****?? It?s never, ?Oh, I really like her music.??

She is also calling bullshit on the idea, perpetuated recently by warring Twitter fan-tribes, that there?s only room for a couple of successful black female artists at any given time. ?Recently, my cousin was with a friend of a friend, who was in high school, and she was like: ?I?m a fan of Kehlani,? but in a way that was like, ?So I can?t be a fan of Tinashe, too.? Then my friend posed the question, ?Why not be a fan of both?? It?s kind of like sport; people feel like they have to pick a side.? Suddenly she springs forward, her default laid-back demeanour temporarily out of the window. ?There are hundreds of [male] rappers that all look the same, that sound the same, but if you?re a black woman, you?re either Beyonc? or Rihanna. It?s very, very strange.?

Ciara ? another all-round performer with a handful of stone-cold bangers ? has suffered similarly through comparison, I suggest. ?I?d agree,? she nods. ?It felt like they almost had to sacrifice someone because there wasn?t enough room, which isn?t true. Ciara?s an amazing artist, Beyonc??s an amazing artist, Rihanna?s an amazing artist, and they?re all very different!?

Tinashe?s mixed-race heritage, which was used ?as another example of why I was different? during those difficult school years, also remains an issue. ?There?s colourism involved in the black community, which is very apparent,? she says carefully. ?It?s about trying to find a balance where I?m a mixed woman, and sometimes I feel like I don?t fully fit into the black community; they don?t fully accept me, even though I see myself as a black woman. That disconnect is confusing sometimes.? A shrug. ?I am what I am.?

She confirms the rumour that Rihanna, or someone from her team, heard Joyride?s title track and briefly swiped it for her own album. ?Yeah, that?s true,? she says with typical breeziness. ?But I don?t know if it was personally Rihanna, like, ?I?m taking that from Tinashe.? I don?t think that?s how it worked. But it?s back now.? Despite all these setbacks, all these things she can?t control, she?s adamant that she?s never once thought of quitting. ?It?s definitely been discouraging, and I have days where I?m less confident, but at the end I know that I?m going to get to where I need to go.? She shuffles in her seat. ?There?s doubt that seeps in, there?s self-deprecation, because you look to someone to blame and you can?t blame anyone but yourself, but I?ve never, ever thought, ?I?m going to work in a mall.??

Late last year, she had a minor breakthrough when RCA released Joyride?s hastily announced companion album Nightride, an after-hours, minimal-sounding stop-gap collection featuring the likes of Dev Hynes and the-Dream. Considering Joyride?s tortured gestation, Nightride?s release felt oddly hassle-free. ?I think by setting the scene differently for the label ? like, this is not ?the album? ? it made it, like, ?OK, it?s just a project,?? she says. Did it feel like the label was appeasing her? ?There was a little bit of that, yeah, but at the same time they?re aware that my fanbase wants new music.?

Perhaps at the core of Tinashe?s delayed ascendancy is her lack of an undeniable, bona fide smash hit; one that would fully capture RCA?s attention and shuffle her up the pecking order (at No 24 in the US, 2014?s 2 On is her highest-charting single to date). She could, in theory, keep chucking out low-key mixtapes and luxuriate in critical acclaim, but ? having grown up on pop stars such as Michael, Britney and Christina ? she?s aiming for superstar status. ?I consider myself a pop artist who makes R&B-tinged pop music,? she says adamantly.

As for Joyride, well, it?s coming. Soon(ish). ?It?s not like it?s sitting in a vault locked up, it?s always getting better and improving,? she says. ?I plan on doing a solid few more months recording then hopefully getting it out this year.? She notices my involuntary eye roll at that word ?hopefully?. ?It?s going to be great,? she states. ?They?re going to be the best songs!?

Billboard is referring to her interview with The Guardian she gave yesterday.

[SouravMay]

Beyonce surrounded herself with chocolate girls for a decade before her debut, and started her pre-era with braids and Afro. She constantly repped Houston, Texas and used African American slang to solidify her blackness eventhough she is light.

[LOONA.]

Boy what     

[Young]

Colorism goes Both ways .
And she never said Kelly and Sevyn don't have a different struggle for being darker

Her challenge is getting accepted in the black community

Part of that is just accepting and realizing there are blacks that look and act "white" for all Intensive purposes . Because she doesn't fit the typical mold in the black community, she either gets ignored or looked at differently .

But I agree A girl like Sevyn may have it harder because although the hood may fuck with her, pop Culture doesn't give Black R&B females much play.

[Young]

It doesn't sound like she blaming colorism, just speaking from her own experience.

She also spoke about every black female artist being relegated to mimicking Beyonce or Rihanna, why are the girls skipping over that?