As is obvious from the multiple "who??" comments that still somehow show up on pretty much everything we post about Tink, many of you still need to get familiar with one of hip-hop's most talented young stars. The 19-year-old Chicago native first popped up on our radars with her pair of Winter's Diary tapes, and ever since then, she's been elevating her craft with each ensuing track.
After some big co-signs and a spot on the Fader cover, she's poised for a huge year (and hopefully a spot on the XXL Freshman list). Get hip to Tink before she blows up with our list of five reasons to listen to her.
She's a double-threat on the mic
Even though we've seen much higher percentage of rappers trying their hand at singing in recent years (thanks, auto-tune), artists who seem to be equally skilled at lyricism and melody are still as much of a rarity as ever. Getting her start singing along to SWV songs, Tink decided to take on rapping after she was already quite an accomplished vocalist, and approached the craft with ferocity, quickly attempting flows that many veterans couldn't dream up. After honing her skills on the mixtape circuit, Tink's now at the point where it's almost impossible to say whether she's better at rapping or singing.
There are still tracks where she focuses on one or the other, but more often than not, Tink's able to switch her delivery on a dime. Take last year's "Sounds Good" for example, which has her alternately dropping fierce, intelligent bars like "Fuck you, you know you hurt me in the worst way like Jhené say/I painted this false image like I was some sort of JPEG" and cooing an effortlessly smooth hook.
Timbaland signed her
If you look of Timbaland's track record of backing up highly skilled female artists, you'll see that Tink is in the best possible company. Timbo first made his name crafting the godly instrumentals that backed up Aaliyah, and then upped his game even further by making sure Missy Elliott had only the wildest beats throughout her career. While it'd be unfair to two of the game's all-time greatest ladies to say that Tink is like a combination of them, hopefully Timbaland will treat her as such and provide her a nice mix of ethereal and banging beats.
Thus far, we've heard three tracks that the duo have collaborated on (not counting the dope-but-unfinished "original" version of Rick Ross & Jay Z's "Movin' Bass"). Although "Ratchet Commandments" might go on to be the most successful of all three, it's "Around The Clock" that's the most charming, as Timbo turns out a classically Eastern-tinged beat while Tink stays low-key, but decidedly on-point. This one sounds very Missy Elliott-esque and promises more great things from this already-hot duo.
She washed both Jay Z and Rick Ross on "Movin' Bass"
As previously mentioned, we never got to hear the finished version of Rick Ross' "Movin' Bass" that featured Tink (which Timbaland said was the original version of the track). That being said, one listen to the leaked clean version is all you need to see that Tink easily runs circles around the rap veterans. While it's pure speculation, it seems like she could've ended up ghostwriting Rozay's part, as they're both heard rapping similar lyrics on the leak. It's no wonder the Maybach bawse said he was "disappointed" in Timbo for letting this one go, because he was handily shown up on his own track by a rapper he apparently didn't even want a guest verse from.
We're disappointed too, as we'll never hear the true, CDQ version of the track, but we have no doubt that Tink will match its greatness somewhere down the line.
Her great "Winter's Diary" mixtapes
Released in the respective winters of 2013 and 2014, Winter's Diary and its sequel were where Tink first proved her insane abilities to the masses. The first one focuses more on her singing, as she was still just dipping her toes in the rap world, but that's no problem, as she adds a dose of chilly modernism to classic, SWV-style sounds. Just as the title suggests, these tapes seem like diary entries that piled up during Chicago's harshest months, with very personal tales of heartbreak, lust and deception being spun into impeccably-written songs.
On last year's Winter's Diary 2, the production was a bit more varied and polished, and Tink seemed like she'd spent the last year honing her already-ridiculously-impressive skills. Rockie Diamonds and Lil Herb show up as guests, and it was definitely one of 2014's most underrated projects.
She's got star potential
Despite the fact that Tink still kicks the occasional song with indie favorites like Kelela and Future Brown (both of those collaborations are dope, by the way), she could soon become a mainstay on the radio. Even without Timbaland, a longtime fixture on the pop charts, at her side, she's able to do mass appeal just as adeptly as charmingly weird. The most sterling example of this is "Don't Tell Nobody," a collaboration with Jeremih that popped up last summer. Although the track never seemed like it was an official single, and thus never really took off, it still has six million plays on SoundCloud and could've nestled in perfectly alongside other popular heaters during the Summer of DJ Mustard.
That, along with the hands-down best remix of Dej Loaf's "Try Me," shows the side of Tink that could reach a ton of people. She may not gun for huge singles initially, but expect her to take over airwaves in the next five years.