Photo credit: Getty images/ Jeff Hahne
Twitter is dragging Tinashe this morning for something she said in an interview with The Guardian. The 24-year-old singer has gained success from singles, like “2 On,” but noticed how oppressive the music industry is for black women. As a woman in music, she had to work harder to gain credibility. “I had to work twice as hard for people to take me seriously,” Tinashe said in an interview with Teen Vogue last August. In her interview with The Guardian, she touched upon how her bi-racial genes and being black are a disadvantage.
As a black female in the music industry, it’s especially difficult to flourish because of the racial bias. She claimed that it seems like there can only be a certain amount of successful black female artists. “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 sports; people feel like they have to pick a side. There are hundreds of [male] rapers that all look the same, that sound the same, but if you’re a black woman, you’re either Beyonce or Rihanna. It’s very, very strange,” she said. Being a black female isn’t the only oppressive factor in the music industry, either.