If you have taste, you know the singer Tinashe. She's behind hits like "2 On," "All Hands on Deck," and my personal fave, "Cold Sweat."
She recently appeared on the Zach Sang Show, where she was asked about her previous collabs with R. Kelly and Chris Brown, both of whom have been subject to abuse allegations.
“You think I wanted to [do those songs]?” Tinashe said of their collabs. “I literally block out that R. Kelly song from my mind — I forget that it even exists."
She said, in hindsight, it's "so embarrassing" and "unreal" that she ever worked with Kelly, given his long and well-documented history of abuse. "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," she continued, referring to RCA Records.
Zach then said she must have "lack[ed] a lot of control in that situation...if any," to which she replied, yes, "1,000%."
“Especially when it comes to singles. 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] was like their biggest artist that they had on rhythmic radio at the time.”
She said that to her, it didn't make sense musically to put Chris on that particular song: “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. That doesn’t compute to me.’”
Chris seemed to take offense to that because he posted this on IG:
He also reposted this message about a "hate campaign" against him...
People didn't really understand it because Tinashe's issue was with her former label for forcing them to do a pop song together — not with Chris himself.
Tinashe hasn't publicly responded to Chris, but we'll see if she does.
If you or someone you know is in immediate danger as a result of domestic violence, call 911. For anonymous, confidential help, you can call the 24/7 National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233 (SAFE) or chat with an advocate via the website.
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