Tinashe Reveals Her Dream Collaborators
Tinashe has opened up to Kaytranda about her direction, female pop rivalry and her dream collaborations for Interview magazine.
“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,” said Tinashe. “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’s taken so long]. 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.”
The singer went on to discuss female competition in pop music, “I don’t have any rivalries. I love all the girls. But it’s classic. It’s an extremely competitive place to be in the music industry as a woman, because we’re taught that there aren’t enough seats at the table for everyone, so that creates a lot of competition,” she said. “There’s a lot of sneaky animosity, little things behind the scenes, people not supporting each other the same way that maybe male artists do. I’ve definitely felt that way over the years.
“Part of the human condition is that we tend to compare ourselves to other people. And so, when you see the success of people that you consider peers, sometimes it can be hard,” she said. “I’ve definitely gone through eras where I’ve felt like, ‘Damn. Everyone who I consider peers are killing me off right now. Everyone’s doing so much better than me.’ So it’s a practice to not compare myself and focus on my own path.”
Tinashe also spoke about her dream collaborators. “My big bucket list items are, like, André 3000 — that would be a dream. Janet [Jackson], of course. James Blake, SZA, I think we could make something really amazing,” she said. “Rosalía, I think we’d make something really dope together. I like to collab with the girls. There’s not very many collabs with female artists, so I definitely want to do more of those.”