Tinashe Leans Into Her Memedom With “Nasty”, Which We Think Will Be This Summer’s Anthem

This article is part of The G Spot, a weekly segment where criticista Gordistotle gives insight into the pop culture happenings of now through opinions or anecdotes on his life living in Toronto.

May 15, 2024 | Written by Gordistotle

If you’ve been living under a rock, “Nasty” is the latest release by that gay guy’s go-to Instastory thirst trap artist, Tinashe. I get him, I maybe even was him at one point. Oh so “Songs For You” wasn’t your shit when it came out? Different strokes for everybody I guess.

For some reason, you may not have known that “Nasty” was even by Tinashe, yes, “2 On” Tinashe, and I’ll get into that, but you’re probably not the only one. Since going independent in 2019 after her previous label RCA paid her career absolute dust, Tinashe has been funding her career mostly on her own.

After a string of albums released under her own label, Tinashe has carved a niche for herself and built a dedicated fanbase. However, her music never really… leaves her fanbase. Sometimes she’ll have a song on the timeline for a week that everyone swears they love… but then it’s never really mentioned again.

Her latest single ‘Needs’ was cute and the grocery store music video was a kii, but it wasn’t getting added to any of my playlists.

This is where the meme-ification of Tinashe’s career comes into play, “2 On”. You’ve heard it. You’ve loved it. And then maybe you forgot it, but the internet didn’t.

“2 On” is like a meme hydra, you can cut off one head and another will grow. The song has for some reason, reigned as a staple Twitter inside joke since the late 2010s.

For an artist like Tinashe, this keeps her relevant, albeit in an internet echo chamber, but when you’re regulated to an internet joke it’s hard to take your music seriously. Unfortunately for Tinashe, who, in fact, does make great music, she’s not on most people’s radar because she’s written off as a meme.

One of the earliest examples of Tinashe being the butt of the joke on the internet is the infamous Elle article, “Watch out Beyonce…Here comes Tinashe”. COME ON!!! Y’ALL SET MY BITCH UP!!!

Keep in mind this was 2014, the same year Beyonce released Self-Titled and the Beyhive went from a casual, to a psych ward inpatient, level fanbase. Knowing the context, you could see how an article like that would rile an already easily enraged fanbase into making the then 21-year-old Tinashe’s career an absolute joke.

I mean, remember what they did to Keri Hilson?

A quick scroll through the quote tweets on the article show most sharing the same sentiment, sympathy. There’s a growing legion of Nashenators out there that want to see her succeed and get money like an invoice!

Fast forward to now, after spending years of her career perfecting her craft and creating some delicious Pop/RnB goodness while doing it, something shifted.

She was finally being taken as a relatively serious artist, but in February of 2024, shit was about to get real weird, and freaky. Nasty was teased on an Instagram live and “SweeTees” (there’s absolutely no way she even remembers tweeting this) went absolutely ballistic. The lead single to Part 2 of BB/ANGEL was released a few months after and became an immediate internet joke, but this time, we were laughing with Tinashe.

So where does Tinashe go from here? “Nasty” is making the rounds on the internet aaaand the streets, and how could it not? I’ve read and heard “Is somebody gonna match my freak?” more times this week than I could count.

If she plays her cards right and the song continues to be an internet hit, this could become a game changer for Tinashe’s independent career and the promotion of her upcoming album. Through reclaiming her memedom, Tinashe has spawned arguably one of the greatest songs this year, and I’m looking forward to hearing what’s next.