Tink is on the brink of making it big. Following the buzz her producer/mentor Timbaland created when he leaked a few of her records to The Breakfast Club and championed her as the next iconic femcee, all eyes are on this young Chicago rapper as she preps her debut album. In a new cover story for The Fader, Tink shows us the suburban Chicago home where she grew up and still lives with her family. She talks about feminism, her journey into music, her connection with Timbaland, and what to expect on her upcoming debut album due out via Mosley/Epic. Here's are 12 things we learned:
1. Her real name is Trinity Homes, but her friends have been calling her Tink since elementary school. Her parents, however, still insist on calling her by her government name.
2. She has a boyfriend named Don Marley.
3. She grew up in a safe, predominately black, and middle-class neighborhood and describes her upbringing as "right in the middle" as far as not being spoiled but not being deprived.
4. Until 2014, all of Tink's songs were recorded in her basement with the help of her father, who is a musical hobbyist.
5. Tink's mother initially objected to her choice of topics to speak on, which Tink says wouldn't have been the case if she were a boy. "But to be a female so young and saying some of the things I was saying, she just didn't have a taste for it. She hated it. We almost had a falling out. The house was so cold."
6. She started getting local buzz in 2011, at age 16, when her brother uploaded a clip to Facebook of her freestyling over Clipse's "Grindin." However, this minor success alienated her from her peers. "I caught a lotta hate. I didn't know who to trust, and as I got more private, people took that as 'She's conceited.' It got to the point where I dreaded going to school. I didn't go to prom or homecoming.
7. In her early years as a rapper, she plugged herself into the drill movement, which was the scene getting the most attention in Chicago. "I'll admit it: I was piggybacking off the drill movement. It wasn't really me. But to get the ear, I had to appeal to the crowds."
8. Now she has made a conscious break from that scene and is focused on becoming a realistic role model for female empowerment. "I had to cut off calling myself 'bitch.' And I cut out some of the songs where I was degrading myself. When people do that, of course it's seen in a fun way, but at the same time it's sending the message to everybody else to look at you as a bitch. I want to dig deep into bad relationships, molestation, racism, and not feeling pretty. I want to get under people's skin."
9. Her first label-backed radio single is called "Ratchet Commandments."
10. Although she wants to have the same sort of presence on records that Kendrick Lamar and J. Cole have, she explains that it is difficult for female rappers to do anything outside of what is hot. "There's a broad range of male rappers, so if they're going out on a limb and they sound different, it's okay because we have twenty other rappers doing what the radio wants. As far as females, there aren't as many, so if you want to compete, you have to sound just like this because that's the only thing hot right now. If you want to compete, you have to look like this."
11. This double standard is the driving force behind why Tink identifies as a feminist. "I'm definitely a feminist. The industry made me that way. I had to grind so hard to be taken seriously, had to work twice as hard to get here. Having to deal with social media is both good and bad. I'm brown, I don't have a big ass, my lips are full. I'm not the ideal pop star, not what you see on TV. I look like I could be your best friend. I would rather impress you with my storytelling than with the size of my waist and my hips."
12. She says that Timbaland is her "music dad" and has introduced her to a lot of old-school music she hadn't heard before, having been born in 1995. He has also helped her focus her sound. She says he views her "as a person, not a product" and that their communication in the studio is seamless. However, she assures that her upcoming debut "doesn't just sound like old-school Timbaland."
Read the full interview here, and let us know what you think in the comments section!
