In today's episode of 'How It Went Down,' Tinashe reveals how she created "Nasty," from the beat to the music video. She shares her reactions to the memes and the song's virality, discusses whether she's found someone to "match her freak," and more!
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MusicTranscript
00:00Hey, I'm Tinashe, and this is how it went down for my song,
00:03Nasty.
00:04Up in a nasty girl, nasty.
00:10Up in a nasty, nasty, nasty.
00:13I really wanted to create a song that was fun,
00:16that had this confident energy about it.
00:19So I thought that there was no better song
00:21than to write something that kind of came from this persona
00:24that I've created in my mind.
00:26Nasty Nashe is this character that I like to tap into
00:29when I'm feeling really confident and braggadocious
00:31and hot and sexy.
00:32So I wanted to write a song from that perspective
00:34that kind of felt like that.
00:37So I thought, why not just write a song named Nasty?
00:39Is somebody gonna match my nasty?
00:42I get stamina, they say I'm an athlete.
00:45The session for Nasty happened over a couple of times.
00:48The first session that we did, we worked on the beat
00:51with Ricky Reed.
00:52Made this kind of two-chord section
00:55that went from this minor chord to this major chord section,
00:57which I really loved.
00:59I took that beat home with me
01:00and just kind of started thinking about ideas.
01:02And then I was driving in my car
01:04and I was recording myself singing and vibing
01:06and freestyling on the beats.
01:08And then all of a sudden, I came up with,
01:11I've been a nasty girl, nasty.
01:13Is somebody gonna match my freak?
01:15It really just felt instinctual.
01:16It was just something that kind of came to me at the time.
01:20So I listened to that recording.
01:21I took it to the studio and I was like,
01:23I think I got an idea.
01:26When I'm in the studio, I like to be comfortable.
01:28I like to be just in my zone.
01:30I don't want too many distractions.
01:31I want to be at home maybe,
01:33or just like in my sweatpants and my pajamas,
01:37just feeling the vibes completely
01:39because that's when I feel the most natural
01:41and I can tap into my instincts.
01:43When I initially released the song,
01:45I think that the fans responded really well to it,
01:47which is exciting.
01:48I played it at Coachella immediately afterwards.
01:50So it was kind of cool to see people already knew the words
01:53and that was just the beginning of it.
01:54And the ball just kind of continued to roll after that.
01:57People started making memes and it just went crazy.
02:06The visual for the song, I think,
02:08really represents that badass feminine energy.
02:11The choreo is sexy.
02:13It's choreographed by Jojo Gomez, who I love.
02:15She always brings the fire when we work together.
02:17It's always magic.
02:19I think that this video really has that confident,
02:22sexy, hot, kind of just natural energy.
02:26The Nasty video shoot, we shot in the desert,
02:28but it actually was not a hot day in the desert.
02:30It was freezing day in the desert.
02:32It was raining.
02:33It was like one degree
02:35and I was wearing these tiny little panties
02:37and this tiny little top and I was freezing.
02:39So in between every take, we had to try to run to get warm.
02:47I think my favorite part about seeing the fan reaction online
02:51is just kind of seeing how many communities
02:53it brings together.
02:54People all over the world have connected with this song
02:56and are doing the dance and are making their own memes
02:59and their own versions.
03:00And there's different parts of the songs
03:01that connect to different people
03:03and people are remixing it a lot of different ways.
03:05So there's all these different versions and interpretations.
03:08People are talking about it in ironic ways and funny ways
03:11and it's just really great to see
03:13how everyone's being creative.
03:14I saw the meme, maybe like, I don't know,
03:18like three weeks after the song came out, maybe.
03:21I first saw it on Twitter.
03:23Then I saw it on TikTok.
03:25Then I was like, okay, gotta do this duet.
03:28That was just like a nice little way to kind of show love
03:32and kind of just keep the song rolling
03:35and it just kind of snowballed from there.
03:36It was crazy.
03:37The hunt to find somebody to match my freak
03:40is not going great yet,
03:43but I feel like, you know, the summer's just getting started.
03:47Maybe this is something that could still happen.
03:51So let me know if you know somebody who can match my freak.