Tinashe has been hard at work as an independent artist for much of the past decade, with her most recent studio album BB/Ang3l arriving last September. The second part of the album, titled BB/Ang3l Pt. 2 – Quantum Baby, is on its way, and the “Treason” singer is giving fans a first taste of the upcoming project.
“Nasty,” the lead single from the album’s second part, is out now and lives in a similar vein as part-one tracks like “Needs” and “Talk to Me Nice.” When speaking about the song and Quantum Baby with Paper, Tinashe noted that BB/Ang3l was always intended to be a trilogy.
“I wanted to release it in three parts just to give people a real sense of what every section meant and really allow them all to marinate. Sometimes you create music and it just gets consumed so quickly. You spend years working on this art. And so I wanted to pace myself in how I was releasing and drop it in three parts,” she explained.
Pt. 2 is set to arrive this summer, making “Nasty” the perfect pre-summer song. “I really wanted to have that energy going into the season, just feeling like I want to have fun, be outside, get sweaty, get nasty, party energy all year,” she mused. “I think it’s kind of all been leading up to this, and I haven’t had a release in the summer in a while. So I’m really excited to be rolling it out in this way.”
The release arrives just in time for Tinashe’s debut performance at Coachella this weekend. While one would think being an independent artist in today’s industry would be exhausting and grind down some creativity, the Forbes 30 Under 30 honoree embraces the constant growth that her profession sparks in her.
“I really love working. I love releasing; it makes me excited. It keeps my shows fresh. It keeps me able to travel to new places, and I love playing shows. I just love everything about it. So I’m really blessed to be able to have the kind of career where the more that I work, it’s always really positive for me,” she said. “I think that’s what keeps me going. I just really love it.”