Tinashe is an American singer, songwriter, dancer, and producer whose genre-fluid catalog and self-directed independent career have made her one of the most distinctive forces in 21st-century R&B and pop. Born Tinashe Jorgensen Kachingwe in Lexington, Kentucky, in 1993 to a Zimbabwean father and a Scandinavian-American mother, she began performing as a child actor before joining the teen girl group The Stunners in 2007 and launching her solo career in 2012.

After releasing three acclaimed self-produced mixtapes — In Case We Die (2012), Reverie (2012), and Black Water (2013) — she signed to RCA Records and broke through with the 2014 single "2 On" featuring Schoolboy Q, which peaked at #24 on the Billboard Hot 100 and earned gold certification. Her debut studio album Aquarius (2014) drew widespread critical acclaim and cemented her place at the forefront of alternative R&B.