Tinashe Reveals She “Blocks Out” Her “Embarrassing” Record With R. Kelly
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Tinashe regrets her song with R. Kelly. During an interview with the Zach Sang Show, the “Aquarius” singer opened up about recording with Kelly. She explained that her then-label RCA called to get her on a song with the disgraced singer. Along with Kells, the songstress also expressed confusion about RCA wanting her to work with Chris Brown.
“You think I wanted [to record those songs]? I literally block out that R. Kelly song from my mind — I forget that it even exists,” she said while looking stunned and disgusted. “That is so embarrassing. That is so unreal that I even have a song with R. Kelly.”
“I was so young, too, which is crazy because I feel like I did that song when I just signed to that label… I was probably 20.” Sang then referenced the backlash Tinashe received at the time due to working with both singers. He explained that the “public perceived it as you doing [it] willingly,” but did acknowledge that because of her label, Tinashe had “lacked a lot of control.”
“Especially when it comes to singles,” Tinashe added. “Like, for example, that song with Chris, that was a song that… we all wanted it 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 [Chris Brown] was their biggest artist that they had on rhythmic radio at the time.”
Tinashe worked with R. Kelly on “Let’s Be Real Now” in 2015 for his The Buffet album. Around the same time, the actress-turned-singer collaborated with Chris for her single, “Player.”
At the time, Tinashe wasn’t sure why she needed Brown on the song, stating that the track had more of a pop flavor to it. “I was like, ‘Well, this is a pop song, so I really don’t feel like we should put Chris on it like that. I don’t like that,” she recalled. “That doesn’t compute to me.'”
The singer most recently dropped off her seventh studio project, BB/ANG3L. BB/ANG3L arrived on Friday (Sept. 8) and featured seven songs across the work. Revisit the LP below.
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