Singer Tinashe felt her words were taken out of context in a recent article published by The Guardian. The article — titled “If You’re A Black Singer, You’re Either Beyoncé or Rihanna” — suggested the half-Danish, half-Zimbabwean artist blamed her “color” for not feeling more welcome in black community and not being further in her career.
“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,” she said in the initial interview. “It’s very, very strange.
“There’s colorism involved in the black community, which is very apparent,” she continued. “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.”
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Consequently, a debate on colorism kicked off on social media, prompting Tinashe to defend her position on her own Twitter account. “I was not talking about colorism in the industry,” she wrote. This is taken out of context.” She claimed she was referring to her own personal experiences growing up.
I was not talking about colorism in the industry. This is taken out of context.
— TINASHE (@Tinashe) June 13, 2017
The article framed it as such, about success in music, where as the conversation we had was about my experiences growing up in general.
— TINASHE (@Tinashe) June 13, 2017
Elsewhere in the interview, Tinashe gave an update on her forthcoming album, Joyride, which she said is coming later in 2017.
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“It’s not like it’s sitting in a vault locked up, it’s always getting better and improving,” she said. “I plan on doing a solid few more months recording then hopefully getting it out this year … It’s going to be great.”
Check out her tweets above and revisit HipHopDX’s chat with Tinashe here.
