TINASHE 'I'VE BEEN IN THE GAME 10 YEARS.I'M NOT NEW TO THIS.I'M TRUE TO THIS'

The singer reached a new peak when her song ‘Nasty’ went wildly viral. Now, Tinashe is energized and ready for more

- BRITTANY SPANOS

This year, Tinashe notched her first Hot 100 entry in eight years with the sexy, propulsive song “Nasty,” which started climbing up the charts in June. Around the same time, a TikTok video of dancer Nate Di Winer went viral: In the clip, the nerdy-looking white boy winds his hips to the song’s chorus, inspiring memes that helped make Tinashe’s line “Match my freak” part of the cultural lexicon.

For the 31-year-old star, “Nasty” represents hard-earned success after a rocky road that started in the major-label system. Now, after a few years as an independent artist, she says her work is just beginning. This fall, she’s on her second tour of the year, and around the holidays, she’s getting back into the studio to record the third installment of an album trilogy she’s been rolling out. “I feel like everything that I’ve been putting in the work for, for all these years, has led up to these moments,” she says. “I’ve been in the game 10 years now, so it’s like, I’m not new to this. I’m true to this.”

You were able to take back your career as an independent artist. What have been your roses and thorns from that experience?