Tinashe Blames her Career Stalling on her Lighter Skin Complexion and Other Issues in the Industry
2 On was smash hit, for at least 2 years you could turn on the radio and expect to hear Tinahse’s break out single.
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3 years later Tinashe has released a number of singles and an album since but none of them has seemed to stick as well as her debut single, 2 On.
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In a recent interview with the Guardian Tinashe admitted to the decline in her entertainment career and blamed some of it on the fact that fans are encouraged to pick sides when it comes to ‘liking’ a female artist. She said “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 demeanor 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 Beyoncé or Rihanna. It’s very, very strange.” Tinahse went on to say “It felt like they almost had to sacrifice someone because there wasn’t enough room, which isn’t true. Ciara’s an amazing artist, Beyoncé’s an amazing artist, Rihanna’s an amazing artist, and they’re all very different!”
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Further on in the interview Tinashe says her mixed race plays a part in why her career has been stalled. 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.”
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In this candid interview Tinashe spoke on something that can be assumed from the outside looking in, which is the obvious sexism that takes place. 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.”
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