Tinashe Talks Struggle To Launch Sophomore Album / Admits To Not Being In Driver’s Seat

With little over a week to go before Tinashe releases sophomore album ‘Joyride,’ the singer is reflecting on her roller-coaster journey.

It’s been far from plain sailing for the R&B star who has actively been trying to get the project off the ground for almost three years.

In a new interview with CR Fashion Book, she keeps it all sorts of real about the hurdles she encountered and even admitted to – at times – not being in the driving seat of the campaign.

She also seized the moment to clarify last year’s comments on colorism that saw many hit back at her.

Dive below for more…

Tinashe On The Underperformance Of Previous Lead Single ‘Flame’:

“I wasn’t forced (to release it), but it was one of these situations where it was like ‘Okay, I will trust you guys and this is what you believe is the best decision so I’m going to get behind it,’ because that’s more advantageous than to sabotage my own songs. And when that wasn’t necessarily successful, I realized that it was my turn to get back into the driver’s seat as far as curating every move I made from there on out.”

Excerpt On Being Aware Of The Critique She Receives:

Speaking with Kachingwe is like watching persistence and drive unfold. She’s aware of the misconceptions and scrutiny around her own image and what people think of her—that she doesn’t know who she is, that her music is unfocused, that she’s controlled by her label, and that she “isn’t a real artist,” she says.

Tinashe On Clarifying Her Remarks About Colorism In The Music Business:

“It’s not literal (the Beyonce/Rihanna comparisons) but there’s the perception that unless you’ve reached this ultimate level of success, that you aren’t successful, which is limiting and unfair because there’s a lot of black women in the R&B space that are making great music that should be equally respected and represented. Everyone is quick to call you a flop or a failure if you haven’t reached these high pinnacles of success. It comes from an idea that there isn’t space for that many women, like there’s this competitive undertone to everything. It isn’t necessarily the case at all; there’s room enough for everyone to be successful.” [Source]

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Interesting insights.

She’s clearly far more “aware” than perhaps giving credit for.

What’ll resonate more though is a slay album. So, let’s hope she delivers come April 13th when ‘Joyride’ finally arrives.