Tinashe says music label forced her to record single with R. Kelly

In a new interview with the Zach Sang Show, Tinashe said her label RCA told her to collaborate with artists Chris Brown and R. Kelly to launch her career resulting in immense scrutiny against her.

Tinashe is being more candid than ever about her artistic evolution and her controversial collaborations during her time with RCA, the label she left in 2019.

In a new interview with the Zach Sang Show, Tinashe was asked whether she thought her singles with disgraced R&B singer R. Kelly and Chris Brown — who has long been criticized for assaulting Rihanna in 2009 and has also been accused of numerous other violent crimes since then — were a result of her label’s faulty strategy to launch her career. At the time of their release, the singles resulted in immense scrutiny pointed at Tinashe for working with men who had a history of violence against women.

Before speaking up, Tinashe appeared stunned and responded with a laugh: “You think I wanted [to do those songs]? I literally block out that R. Kelly song from my mind — I forget that it even exists,” she said. “That is so embarrassing. That is so unreal that I even have a song with R. Kelly.”

The singer-songwriter shared her seventh full-length studio effort, a 7-song collection of R&B-leaning pop titled “BB/ANG3L,” on Sept. 8 via Ricky Reed’s Nice Life Records (which also houses Lizzo), but has long been vocal about her distaste for major labels after struggling under RCA as an up-and-coming artist.

She told Sang, “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 like 20.” Sang then brought up the backlash Tinashe received as a result of the collaborations, saying the “public perceives it as you doing willingly,” and acknowledged the fact that Tinashe had a “lack a lot of control.”